University  Library 
University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


OF 


CHARLES    A.    SUMNER, 

Delivered  at  a  Republican  Mass  Meeting 

AT 

S 


On  Friday  Evening,  September  7th,  1860. 


On  the  evening  above  named,  the  spacious  hall  of  the  Republican 
Central  Club  was  crowded  by  an  intelligent  and  attentive  audience. 

Mr.  BARTON,   President  of  the  Club,   introduced^  Mr.   C.   A. 
SUMNER,  of  San  Francisco. 
Mr.  SUMNER  said : 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  From  the  midst  of  duties  the 
most  imperative  and  exacting,  suffering  under  a  temporary  indisposition  of  a 
nature  peculiarly  calculated  to  unfit  one  for  the  proper  discharge  of  those 
obligations  which  a  speaker  owes  to  the  community  of  citizens  before  whom 
he  has  been  formally  announced  to  appear,  I  come  to  you,  this  evening,  ap 
prehending  that  throughout  my  remarks  I  shall  have  constant  occasion  for 
the  exercise  of  your  kind  indulgence.  But  I  will  not  allow  myself  to  be  in 
troduced  to  you  merely  as  a  man  generally  absorbed  in  other  pursuits  than 
those  of  a.  political  nature,  or  as  one  who,  being  afflicted  for  the  time  present 
with  physical  ailing,  cannot  borrow  inspiration  and  vitalizing  strength  from 
the  principles  of  the  party  we  are  here  to  advocate  and  to  sustain. 

1  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  that  brings  me  here,  with  you,  to-night.  I 
am  proud  to  have  the  honor  of  addressing  so  large  and  respectable  a  gath 
ering  of  the  people  of  the  city  and  county  in  which  I  once  resided,  in  which 
I  now  frequently  sojourn  and  follow  the  business  of  my  profession;  and  for 
whose  interests  I  have  entertained  and  hope  continually  to  hold  the  highest 
and  most  careful  regard.  As  I  rose  to  speak  a  most  pleasing  assurance 
sprang  from  the  retrospect  which  opened  to  my  view.  Three  or  four  years 
ago — a  short  period  in  the  ordinary  history  of  States  and  of  individuals,  but 
O !  how  long  and  important  in  the  birth  of  great  events  for  California — three 
or  four  years  ago  the  entire  Republican  strength  of  this  county  was  to  be 
numbered  by  a  few  hundreds.  About  that  distance  of  time  from  us,  in  the 
past,  I  was  honored  by  a  nomination  at  the  hands  of  the  Republican  party 
of  Sacramento  for  an  office  of  large  emoluments  with  little  labor;  and  I  re 
ceived  some  four  or  five  hundred  votes  out  of  thousands  which  were  cast  at 
that  election.  Subsequent  to  that  date,  I  was  engaged  in  editing  and  pub 
lishing  a  Republican  daily  in  this  city,  which,  though  liberally  encouraged  by 
a  few  men  in  our  ranks,  never  returned  to  those  immediately  employed  in  its 


conduct  a  very  heavy  pecuniary  compensation.  But  let  this  meeting,  so 
considerable  in  numbers  and  so  enthusiastic  in  spirit,  called  at  such  a  brief 
and  imperfect  notice,  having  the  single  attraction  of  such  a  plain  talk  as 
your  humble  servant  can  afford,  on  matters  political,  be  recorded  in  unim 
peachable  evidence  of  the  growing  favor  of  our  cause  and  the  definite  pros 
perity  of  our  party. 

And  I  rejoice  exceedingly  in  this  certain  indication  of  our  numerically 
increasing  force.  I  rejoice  for  the  sake  of  our  cause  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
people.  It  is  a  most  comfortable  reflection,  that  after  years  of  service  in  a 
political  organization,  after  undergoing  much  of  positive  toil  and  loss,  and 
struggling  with  vexation  of  spirit  under  the  cloud  of  popular  reproach,  we 
are  enabled  to  feel  the  power  of  the  general  voice  in  our  behalf.  I  am  glad 
of  this,  since  I  know  that  there  are  many  among  the  floating  classes  of  our 
population  who  cannot  recognize  and  appreciate  and  who  will  not  practically 
acknowledge  the  truth  of  our  principles  unless  they  are  inscribed  upon  ban 
ners  borne  by  an  army  having  the  prestige  and  promise  of  victory.  And, 
fellow-citizens,  that  promise  is  now  with  us  ;  and  we  may  hope  for  and  expect 
daily  valuable  accessions  to  our  ranks.  And  be  our  proclamation — Let  the 
recruits  come  in ! — on  the  one  hand,  unawed  by  threats  of  political  proscrip 
tion,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  welcomed  by  the  most  unaffected  and  sincere 
expressions  of  a  desire  for  future  political  fellowship.  Let  there  be  no  article 
illegitimately  interpolated  in  our  national  creed  which  shall  not  comport  with 
the  characteristic  our  platform  of  Faith  now  holds,  above  that  of  any  other 
party  in  the  land — that  of  an  impartial  and  strict  regard  for  the  rights  and 
the  welfare  of  all  citizens,  irrespective  of  their  nationalities,  trades,  profes 
sions  and  abilities. 

Mr.  President  and  fellow-citizens :  The  day  in  which  indifference  to  our 
political  condition  was  excusable  on  the  part  of  any  citizen — if,  indeed,  such 
a  period  can  be  proven  ever  to  have  existed  in  the  history  of  our  country — 
has,  assuredly,  passed  away.  The  whole  mind  of  the  people  has  been 
aroused  by  the  wicked  accomplishments  and  the  still  more  infamous  tenden 
cies  of  our  present  administered  Federal  Government,  now,  we  rejoice  to  re 
member,  in  the  closing  year  of  its  existence.  If  the  deeds  actually  done  in 
the  body  and  by  the  authority  of  this  administration  have  not  been  of  such  a 
nature  and  magnitude  as  in  themselves  to  startle  and  shock  the  universal 
sentiment  of  truth,  justice  and  decency,  its  bold  and  base  though  fruitless 
endeavors,  its  flagrant  omissions,  its  promises,  flauntingly  held  out  for  itself 
and  its  possible  successor,  adopting  the  same  line  of  policy,  ought  to  have 
touched  every  citizen  who  loves  his  country  with  a  fear  for  the  perpetuity  of 
its  institutions,  inspired  the  heart  and  nerved  the  arm  of  every  patriot  with 
an  unalterable  determination  to  secure  a  decided  and  immediate  change  in 
the  conduct  of  Federal  affairs.  It  is  a  safe  and  certain  appeal,  then,  which 
a  citizen  may  make  at  this  time  in  addressing  a  promiscuous  assemblage  on 
matters  political,  to  a  general,  although  in  degree  very  unequal  and  in  qual 
ity,  perhaps*  very  dissimilar  sense  and  appreciation  of  the  corrupting  and 
destroying  elements  which  have  been  cautiously  and  secretly  introduced,  but 
which  have  in  recent  years  been  shamelessly  exhibited  in  our  National  Kule. 

I  assume  then  that  the  members  of  the  Republican  party  stand,  at  the 
outset,  not  so  much  the  advocates  of  precise  and  normal  progress,  as  the 
averters  of  impending  ruin  and  overwhelming  catastrophe.  Or,  if  it  be 
"  progress "  which  the  platform  of  our  political  organization  declares  we 
are  seeking — if  that  term,  with  its  blessed  significations  and  associa'ions  of 
old,  and  its  sad  perversions  by  the  moral  and  political  schools  of  this  genera 
tion,  is  deemed  the  most  fit  and  exact  to  tell  of  our  aims  and  actions  ;  then 
we  are  attempting  an  advance,  a  progress,  up  the  grade  from  the  low  level  to 
which  the  demagogue  chiefs  of  the  still-denominated  Democratic  party  have 
reduced  our  once  glorious  Federal  government. 


Jancrcft  Library 


And,  fellow-citizens,  no  sensible,  reading,  honest  man  will  challenge  these 
assertions  as  mere  sensation  periods,  unfounded  in  any  firmer  basis  than  a 
miserable  hope  for  a  morbid  and  temporary  excitement.  For,  reflections 
such  as  these  are  substantially  the  burden  of  hourly  conversations  on  the 
public  highway,  in  the  hotel,  the  workshop  and  at  the  fireside.  Indeed,  as 
we  pass  through  community,  as  we  receive  and  return  the  ordinary  salu 
tations  of  neighbors  and  friends,  as  we  catch  from  every  quarter  those  inci 
dental,  unpretending  phrases,  bearing  opinions  upon  politicians  and  political 
measures  and  records  seemingly  so  long  entertained  and  so  often  expressed 
as  to  be  considered  by  their  authors  hardly  worth  a  repetition — the  words  of 
casual  comment  and  censure  which  can  only  spring  from  a  wide-spread  in 
formation  and  deep-rooted  conviction  in  regard  questions  of  Representation 
and  Law — we  are  excited  to  an  astonishment  unspeakable  at  the  realization 
of  the  fact  that  there  are  any,  no  matter  how  few,  who  are  so  weak  as  to  do 
homage  to  the  rulers  by  whose  hands  the  sceptre  of  power  is  now  convul 
sively  and  precariously  clutched,  or  so  deficient  in  manly  intelligence  and  so 
puti'ed  up  with  the  conceit  of  sycophancy  as  to  attempt  to  extenuatingly  ex 
plain  or  directly  defend  the  administration  of  James  Buchanan.  We  may 
look  for  and  we  can  abide  a  strenuous  endeavor  on  the  part  of  the  rulers 
themselves  to  support  their  position  in  office  by  speeches  abounding  in  pre 
varications  and  miss:atements — although  even  their  impertinence  sometimes 
forces  from  us  the  blush  of  mortification  5  but  for  those  claiming  entire  disin 
terestedness  to  make  efforts  for  the  help  of  the  Federal  governors  of  to-day 
is,  really,  a  performance  passing  common  understanding. 

And  in  this  connection  there  are  to  be  enumerated  some  of  the  most  re 
markable  tacts  ever  developed  in  the  history  of  any  political  canvass  since 
the  organization  of  our  Republican  system  of  general  command  and  private 
security.  We  appear  to  ascend  into  a  temple  of  wonder  as  we  proceed  to 
rehearse  them. 

A  large  portion  of  the  once  compact  and  victorious  Democracy — the  equal 
if  not  the  major  portion  of  that  organization — seek  to  unshoulder  every  par 
ticle  of  the  odium  and  curse  which,  as  they  acknowledge,  justly  falls  upon  the 
political  body  truly  responsible  for  the  mal-admiuistration  of  Federal  affairs 
for  the  last  four  or  eight  years  And  what  is  the  plea  set  up  for  this  escape  ? 
We  do  not  forget  that  until  wiihin  two  or  three  years  there  has  not  been  the 
slightest  difference  of  opinion  between  the  now  divided  sections  of  the  De 
mocracy.  No.  But  one  wing  of  that  party  now  has  the  effrontery  to  claim 
and  assert  that  it  is  entirely  and  absolutely  free  from  any  of  the  censure;  which 
may  be  righteously  attached  to  James  Buchanan's  rule,  because,  forsooth, 
their  leader  and  candidate  once  dared — and  the  vocabularies  of  our  own  living 
and  of  two  dead  languages  have  been  exhausted  in  the  search  for  terms 
wherein  to  herald  the  moral  courage  said  to  be  evinced  in  this  one  act — be 
cause  their  candidate  and  leader  dared  (give  them  the  implying  benefit  of  the 
word)  to  differ  on  an  abstract  question  of  political  rights  with  the  occupant 
of  the  White  House.  Because  Stephen  A.  Douglas  once  assumed  a  par 
tially  antagonistic  position  towards  this  administration  on  the  subject  of  Popu 
lar  Sovereignty,  in  a  series  of  discussions  full  of  loose  language  and  meaning 
less  babble,  the  pretense  is  set  up  that  this  Popular  Sovereignty  portion  of 
the  Democracy,  so-called,  is  not  in  any  degree  to  be  held  accountable  for 
the  past  four  years  of  national  mismanagement.  Mark  you!  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  never  opposed  a  single  rotten  proposition  of  this  administration, 
having  relation  to  matters  within  the  various  States  or  in  any  one  of  them, 
except  in  a  single  instance  where  his  personal  feelings  and  support  were 
deeply  involved — 1  refer  now  to  the  confirmation  of  the  present  Chicago 
Postmaster ; — and  yet,  because  he  differed  on  a  single  occasion  and,  as  we 
easily  demonstrate,  on  a  point  of  small  significance  and  no  practical  value, 
with  the  President  of  these  United'  States,  both  he  and  his  followers — the 
most  active  and  efficient  workers  for  the  election  of  James  Buchanan — are  not 
to  be  summoned  on  the  enlarging  record  of  administrative  iniquity.  Nay, 


more.  There  is  another  pinnacle  of  wonder  remaining.  Because  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  dared  to  differ  with  the  President  of  these  United  States  on  an 
abstract  question  of  political  rights,  and  because,  from  the  date  of  that  dif 
ference,  the  President  sought  to  ostracize  the  Illinois  Senator  and  his  friends, 
therefore,  pre-eminently — so  runs  the  argument — pre-eminently,  Mr.  Doug 
las  and  his  friends  are  entitled  to  undertake  the  work  and  receive  the  honor 
of  constituting  and  composing  prosecuting  attorneys,  judges  and  jurors  in 
the  grand  national  case  of  the  People  of  the  Uni'.ed  States  vs.  the  "  Old 
Public  Functionary." 

The  splendid  and  superlative  audacity  evinced  in  this  assumption  can 
hardly  be  contemplated  with  any  kind  or  degree  of  complacency.  I  make 
but  a  passing  allusion  to  it ;  not  for  the  purpose  of  directly  attacking 
Mr.  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  adherents,  but  as  illustrative  of  the  very  wide 
spread  sentiment  of  dislike  and  detestation  towards  our  present  high  coun 
selors  at  Washington  ;  and  I  submit  to  you,  fellow-citi/cns,  very  general  and 
very  unanimous  must  be  the  hatred  of  a  people  towards  a  President  and  his 
conduct,  when  such  a  flimsy  and  pitiful  shift  for  excuse  as  this  which  I  have 
described  is  resorted  to  by  a  portion  of  the  party  securing  his  elevation,  and 
with  but  few  exceptions  and  until  within  a  short  period,  sustaining  his  dis 
honest  domestic  policy. 

But,  says  one,  if  it  be  true  that  such  is  the  popular  regard,  why  trouble 
us  with  talk  about  the  matter?  Why  not  keep  a  judicious  silence  ?  Why 
is  not  silence  most  judicious?  Why  waste  time  and  breath  arguing  questions 
or  relating  facts  ?  If  all  the  people,  or  nearly  all  the  people,  entertain  such 
views  as  you  have  presented,  what  is  the  use  or  sense  in  haranguing  upon 
the  past  and  existing  position  of  political  affairs,?  Alas !  my  friends,  the  ex 
perience  of  the  world  has  demonstrated  in  many  a  burning  record,  that  it  is 
one  thing  to  possess  a  general  feeling  of  disapprobation  and  disgust,  and 
quite  another  to  hold  definite  information  and  ideas  in  regard  to  the  origin 
of  such  feelings  and  to  be  enabled  correctly  to  ACT  in  view  of  a  coming 
movement  for  a  change  or  continuance  of  administration.  It  is  necessary 
that  the  history  of  the  past  four  years  should  be  gone  over  with  again  and 
again  before  the  masses  of  the  people ;  not  in  a  tone  of  monotony,  not  in 
mere  recitative  form  and  manner,  but  with  each  feature  of  official  vice  noted 
with  the  emphasis  of  proof  and  warning ;  so  that  the  people  may  thoroughly 
comprehend  the  workings  of  that  political  party  with  which,  in  affection  and 
by  ballot,  a  majority  of  them  have  for  a  long  time  been  connected.  And  the 
former  and  present  position  of  the  great  Lights  and  Leaders  of  the  Democra 
cy  as  it  once  was,  must  be  exhibited  to  the  inquiring  sovereigns  of  this  Re 
public.  Otherwise — perceiving  that  the  last  Democratic  Convention  which 
nominated  John  C.  Breckinridge  for  the  Presidency,  refused  to  formally  en 
dorse  the  administration  of  James  Buchanan ;  hearing  from  the  desperate 
demagogues  of  the  Douglas  school  and  the  smoothly-shaven,  store-clothed, 
flambeau-cravatted,  gold-fobbed,  big-bellied  "  respectabilities "  of  the  Bell 
and  Everett  fraternity  the  pretense  that  they  are  equally  opposed  with  us 
to  sectionalism  and  misrule — the  people  may  be  cajoled  into  such  a  course 
of  action  as  will  lead  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  slave  oligarchy  in 
another  term  of  office.  As  sincerity  is  no  equivalent  for  truth,  so  the  univer 
sal  conviction  of  the  existence  of  an  evil  is  by  no  means  a  guarantee  of  its 
speedy  and  complete  removal. 

Moreover,  it  becomes  us,  who  in  one  form  or  another  and  without  undue 
ostentation  attempt,  not  to  be  "  leaders  of  the  multitude,"  but  the  exercisers 
of  a  fair  and  legitimate  degree  of  influence  over  our  neighbors  and  friends, 
to  carefully  study  the  record  of  our  opponent*,  expose  their  short-comings, 
their  abuses  of  authority,  their  official  profligacy,  their  willful  neglects  of 
public  interests  while  criminally  engaged  in  fostering  private  speculations, 
and  indicate  the  direction  which,  in  our  opinion,  the  party  with  which  we  are 
connected  should  take,  in  order  to  secure  the  best  reformatory  results. 


Fellow-citizens,  in  my  remarks  this  evening  I  shall  not  enter  into  any 
speculative  argument  on  the  subject  of  Popular  Sovereignty,  or  seek  to  de 
fine  the  just  property  rights  of  the  people  in  either  section  of  the  Union,  em 
igrating  from  a  State  to  a  Territory.  I  might  assign  as  a  reason  for  this,  that 
there  are  other  subjects  of  more  interest  to  me,  as  I  think  they  deserve 
a  relatively  higher  consideration  from  us  all ;  and  the  one  which  I  shall  re 
frain  from  touching  in  any  but  the  briefest  manner  has  been  made  familiar  to 
you,  and  will  continually  be  brought  to  your  notice  by  older  and  much  wiser 
speakers  upon  technically  legal  or  constitutional  matters  than  I  profess  to  be. 
Besides,  I  hasten  at  this  point  to  make  the  confession,  I  am  heartily  sick  of 
this  everlasting  talk — usually  lugged  in  when  territorial  forms  of  government 
are  discussed— about  negroes,  and  the  peculiar  oppressions  under  which  it  is 
reported  they  occasionally  suffer,  and  the  peculiar  rights  which  it  is  asserted 
they  ought  always  to  enjoy.  I  am  not  here  to  expend  my  energies  or  vacate 
your  time  and  patience  by  bravely  decrying  the  peculiar  institutions  of  my 
brethren  in  distant  States.  I  shall,  perhaps,  refer  to  the  facts  properly  asso 
ciated  in  a  fair  discussion  of  this  subject,  as  they  are,  or  may  be,  illustrative 
of  this  administration's  history;  but  I  shall  not  stop  to  dwell  upon  them. 

Those  who  assert  or  imagine  that  a  negro  is  the  corner  stone  of 
the  Republican  party  edifice  are  as  much  at  fault  as  is  the  distinguished 
Senator  from  Virginia,  when  he  announces  that  the  blackmail,  or  the 
institution  of  slavery,  is  the  key-stone  of  the  Federal  arch.  Nothing 
is  more  injurious  to  our  advance  as  a  political  organization  than  this 
idea  which  our  opponents  attempt  to  force  upon  us — that  of  making  a  mor 
bid  sympathy  for  an  inferior  race  the  foundation  for  a  national  party.  Our 
platform  and  the  records  of  our  leading  men  give  the  lie  to  this  accusation, 
this  miserable  doctrine  put  forward  by  enemies  from  without  our  organization 
and  only  encouraged  from  within  by  a  very  few  fanatical  and  irresponsible 
men.  We  are  of  the  opinion  that  slavery  is  detrimental  to  the  best  good  of 
the  white  race  ;  we  oppose  its  extension  into  new  territories  on  that  ground ; 
we  oppose  it  by  constitutional  means.  We  will  respect  all  State  laws  on 
this  subject,  within  the  legal  sphere  of  their  operation.  With  our  candidate, 
Abe  Lincoln,  we  are  opposed  to  a  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  We 
cling  to  the  union  of  these  States  forever,  whether  there  be  one  slave  or  a 
hundred  million  of  slaves  in  any  or  every  section  thereof.  You  cannot  show 
the  contrary  of  these  statements,  by  exposing  any  platform-article  or  record 
within  our  party  since  it  has  been  in  recognized  existence. 

Only,  now,  let  me  say  that  this  "  constitutional  question,"  which  has  been 
so  savagely  mooted  in  connection  with  this  discussion  on  property  rights  in  the 
Territories,  appears  to  me  to  be  neither  complex  nor  difficult.  All  questions 
in  which  an  interpretation  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  involved 
are,  in  my  opinion,  simple  and  easily  to  be  understood.  No  less  a  man  than 
Judge  Story  said :  "  A  constitution  of  government  is  addressed  to  the  com 
mon  sense  of  the  people,  and  never  was  designed  for  trials  of  logical  skill  or 
visionary  speculation."  Mr.  Douglas  has  attempted  to  confuse  the  public 
mind  with  subtle  intricacies  of  speech  on  this  subject,  and  has  succeeded  in 
inoculating  a  large  number  of  followers,  who  are  without  his  reasoning  pow 
ers  and  his  dishonesty  of  purpose,  with  his  contradictory  doctrines  of  Sover 
eignty.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  after  the  thorough  sifting  which  his 
sophistries  hava  received  at  the  hands  of  such  keen  and  true  men  as  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  and  Lyman  Trumbull,  we  are  paying  too  high  a  compliment  to 
the  mere  tricky  ingenuity  of  the  "  Little  Giant "  by  extending  the  exposure 
of  his  unstable  political  theories. 

My  friends,  when  James  Buchanan  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency, 
the  world  in  general  labored  under  the  impression  that  he  was  a  great  man. 
By  the  time  he  had  arrived  at  the  conclusion  of  the  delivery  of  his  inaugural 
address,  the  world  was  ready  to  concede,  that  without  considering  his  advance 
in  life,  he  was  a  man  of  great  promise.  He  promised  whatever  was  asked 
of  him  without  stint  or  grudging,  and  he  volunteered  pledges  without  punc- 


tuation.  His  promises,  political  and  personal,  came  so  thick  and  fast  that 
they  oftentimes  ran  into  each  other  on  the  same  line;  sometimes  overlaid 
one  another ;  frequently  contradicted  each  other.  But  their  inconsistencies, 
at  least,  were  not  seen  until  after  the  first  month  of  his  occupancy  of  the 
Executive  Chair.  His  mouth  was  like  a  golden-throa  ed  pitcher,  from  which 
there  was  poured  out  the  very  essential  oil  of  national  beneficence,  good  will 
and  charity. 

1.  He  promised  us  a  Pacific  Railroad.     Has  he  fulfilled  or  endeavored 
to  fulfill  that  promise  ?     We  shall  see. 

2.  He  promised  peace  on  the  slaver)'  question.     How  has  he  abided  by 
that  pledge  ? 

3.  He  promised  protection  to  American  industry.     He  is  supposed  by 
some  of  his  adherents  to  have  fulfilled  that  promise  by  recommending  to 
Congress  a  slight  qualification  in  our  tariff  rates,  just  prior  to  an  important 
election  in  his  native  State. 

4.  He  promised  a  just  and  honorable  settlement  of  our  difficulties  with 
foreign  nations.     On  this  point  he  was  very  emphatic — intimating  that  his 
large  acquaintance  and  experience  in  diplomatic  circles  would  eminently  qual 
ify  him  for  the  "  Foreign   Relation  business,"  which  he  would  carry  on  with 
consummate  skill  and  advantage.     So  he  said.     We  will  come  to  a  candid 
consideration  of  his  wonderful  accomplishments  in  this  line,  by  and  by. 

Of  course,  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  enumeraie  all  the  good  thing* 
assured  unto  us  as  a  people,  by  the  electioneering  word  of  the  "  Old  Public 
Functionary."  But  do  not  let  us  omit  to  set  down  in  order,  as 

5.  He  denounced  corruption  in  high  places,  in  official  stations ;  impliedly 
and  vehemently  promising  that  nothing  of  the  kind  should  be  tolerated 
during   his  reign  and  under  his  executive  vision.     I   will   not  insult  your 
intelligence  by  anxiously  seeking  your  opinion  on  this  point. 

The  Pacific  Railroad  now  signifies  a  want  which  has  been  thoroughly  indi 
vidualized  by  every  citizen  on  these  shores.  I  will  not  dwell  upon  its  palpa 
ble  advantages.  James  Buchanan  well  understood  its  importance  in  fact  to 
the  whole  country,  and  the  first  estimation  in  which  it  was  held  by  our  people. 
He  signified  that  understanding  by  the  last  formal  announcement  he  made 
of  his  purpose  to  secure  the  early  commencement  of  such  a  work.  He  def 
initely  pledged  himself  to  the  furtherance  of  this  national  undertaking,  when, 
in  his  letter  accepting  the  Presidential  nomination,  he  subscribed  to  the  Rail 
road  Resolution — (a  *•  Ready  Relief  "for  skittish  North- Western  Democrats ;) 
he  pledged  himself  to  this  great  measure  in  the  following  terms,  to  be  found 
in  his  just-before-election  letter  to  Ben  Washington,  of  San  Francisco  : 

To  B.  F.  WASHINGTON,  San  Francisco — SIR  :  I  ha\e  received  numerous  communica 
tions  from  sources  in  California,  entitled  to  high  regard,  in  reference  to  the  proposed 
Pacific  Rail  Road.  As  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  answer  them  all,  I  deem  it 
most  proper  and  respectful  to  address  you  a  general  answer  in  your  official  capacity 
[Chairman  Democratic  State  Central  Committee.]  In  performing  this  duty  to  the 
citizens  ot  California,  I  act  in  perfect  consistency  with  the  self-imposed  restriction 
contained  in  my  letter,  accepting  the  nomination  for  the  Presidency,  and  not  to  an 
swer  interrogatories,  raising  new  and  different  issues  from  those  presented  by  the 
Cincinnati  Convention  ;  because,  that  Convention  has  itself  adopted  a  resolution  in 
favor  of  this  great  work,  and  I  then  desire  to  state  briefly,  that,  concurring  with  the 
Convention,  I  am  decidedly  favorable  to  the  construction  of  the  Pacific  Rail  Road; 
and  I  derive  the  authority  to  do  this,  from  the  Constitutional  power  "  to  declare  war,'' 
and  the  Constitutional  duty  "to  repel  invasions."  In  my  judgment,  Congress  pos 
sesses  the  same  power  to  make  appropriations  for  the  construction  of  this  road, 
strictly  for  the  purpose  of  national  defence,  that  they  hatfe  to  erect  fortifications  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Harbor  of  San  Francisco.  Indeed,  the  necessity,  with  a  view  to 
repel  foreign  invasion  from  California,  is  as  great  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
Neither  will  there  be  danger  from  the  precedent ;  for  it  is  almost  impossible  to  con 
ceive  that  any  case,  attended  by  such  extraordinary  and  unprecedented  circumstances, 
can  ever  again  occur  in  our  history.  Yours  very  Respectfully, 

JAMES  BUCHANAN, 


You  know  that  this  letter  slept  in  Benjamin's  capacious  breast  coat  pocket 
until  such  an  hour  as  he  could  conveniently  draw  it  upon  the  people  of  this 
coast,  without  venture  of  its  finding  printed  sight  in  the  Atlantic  States  before 
the  great  ballot-day  in  November,  1856.  You  are  probably  aware  of  the 
fact  that  it  was  denounced  at  the  time  of  its  appearance  in  the  Globe,  of 
San  Francisco,  as  a  forgery ;  and  you  will  all  probably  agree  with  me  to 
night  in  declaring  that  it  were  better  for  all  the  parties  concerned  in  its 
influencing  publication,  that  it  should  have  been  proven  a  forgery  on  the  part 
of  some  tide-waiter  expectant,  than  that  it  should  have  been  ultimately  sealed, 
as  it  has  been,  a  willful  and  deliberate  lie  on  the  part  of  him  whose  name  was 
authoritatively  appended. 

It  may  be  urged  that  James  Buchanan  has  not  had  any  oppotunity  to 
evince  an  honest  will  in  compliance  with  his  agreement  with  the  people  of 
this  coast.  There  are  numerous  ways  in  which  a  President  can  manifest  a 
sincere  regard  for  any  particular  proposition  calculated  to  enhance  the  glory 
and  prosperity  of  his  country  and  the  value  of  his  own  nane.  He  cannot 
want  for  such  opportunity,  and  his  sincerity  cannot  fail  of  trial,  as  daily  occa 
sions  in  which  he  might  develop  with  great  effect  his  real  desires  in  the 
premises  multiply  and  pass  away  improved  or  neglected.  Let  me  reduce 
this  whole  matter  to  a  simple  inquiry.  Do  you  suppose  for  one  moment, 
does  any  intelligent  citizen  imagine,  that  if  James  Buchanan  had  his  heart 
and  head  rightly  exercised  in  favor  of  the  building  of  a  Pacific  Railroad,  the 
work  would  not  now  be  well  under  way,  the  iron  horse  would  not  already  be 
sounding  his  shrill  note  for  advancing  civilization,  on  a  track  laid  on  the  Cen 
tral  Line  across  the  continent,  and  reaching  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
City  of  Salt  Lake  ?  Those  of  us  who  are  familiar  with  the  influence  which 
covertly  descends  from  the  White  House  Functionary  upon  the  weak  breth 
ren  in  either  Hall  of  Congress,  can  answer  this  question  with  instant  emphasis. 
Fellow-citizens,  if  James  Buchanan  had  been  a  consistent  friend  of  the  Cen 
tral  Pacific  Railroad  measures,  if  he  had  spoken  in  his  levee  and  dinner 
conversations,  immediately  to  serviceable  Congressmen,  as  he  made  a  virtue 
and  profit  of  speaking  in  his  public  documents,  the  measure  would  long  since 
have  been  a  practical,  operating  law  of  the  United  States.  Who  doubts  it? 
We  do  not  accuse  him  of  a  wicked  neglect  of  our  interests  in  not  using  for 
the  practicable  Railroad  bills  the  same  influences  which  he  exerted  to  consum 
mate  the  Lecompton  swindle;  but  we  do  say,  and  make  it  known  unto  all 
men,  that  instead  of  using  his  legitimate  influence  for  our  good  in  this 
respect,  he  eat  his  messages  in  his  parlors,  and  to  his  menial  creatures  in 
Congress  gave  a  word  of  warning  against  any  help  for  the  grand  project  of 
the  age,  whenever  such  aid  might  have  the  prospect  of  securing  the  end  os- 
tensibly  in  view.  Hence  we  have  the  mutilating  amendments,  the  tedious 
and  frivolous  debate  over  insignificant  sections,  the  pitiful  delays, — all  pro 
duced  by  those  boasting  of  friendship  for  the  project,  and  all  by  the  mere 
implements  of  an  Executive  who  could  convert  their  low  and  defeating  cun 
ning  into  real  service  for  the  measure,  if  he  so  willed  it.  We  have  had  an 
abundance,  aye,  a  surfeit  of  preliminary  investigation  on  this  subject,  the 
result  and  amount  of  which  has  been  to  confirm  the  eminent  superiority  of 
the  great  central  route  of  emigration ;  the  route  which  that  glorious  champion 
of  the  true  Democracy,  Tom  Benton,  sagaciously  remarked,  "  was  mapped 
out  by  the  Almighty,  and  directly  pioneered  for  man  by  the  buffalo."  Our  last 
two  Democratic  administrations  have  been  willing  to  squander  money  in  such 
Railroad  plans  as  placed  the  thing  itself  in.  the  dim  unknown;  but,  as  Brod- 
erick  has  frequently  said  to  me,  they  exposed  their  actual  hostility  to  a  trans 
continental  iron  track  whenever  a  bill  granting  effectual  aid  therefor  had  any 
likelihood  of  a  passage,  by  calling  the  roll  of  Congressional  dough-faces  and 
destroying  the  feasible  scheme  by  "  cutting  it,  sir,  hacking  it,  sir,  killing  it 
like  assassins,  sir,  like  assassins." 

Then,  as  we    all  very  well  understand,  established  overland  mail  routes 
are  the  forerunners,  so  to  ?peak,  of  the  iron  rails.    And  if  it  be  objected  that 


8 

the  proof  of  the  President's  duplicity  in  regard  to  the  Railroad  question, 
which  we  have  just  afforded,  is  too  much  of  the  inferential  order,  not  suffi 
cient  of  itself  to  convict,  we  have  here  close  and  damning  evidence  of  his 
utter  lack  of  good  faith,  of  his  entire  recklessness  in  full  view  of  the  most 
stringent  pledges,  of  his  total  and  terrible  subserviency  to  the  masters  in 
niggerdom.  A  contract  involving  an  expenditure  of  $600,000  per  annum, 
entered  into  with  competent  and  energetic  parties,  is  so  warped  from  its 
original  liberty  of  terms  as  to  compel  the  contractors  to  adopt  that  which  is 
familiarly  known  as  the  "  Rainbow  "  or  "  Horse-shoe  route  " — a  route  which 
may  be  fairly  described,  in  contrast,  without  indicating  all  its  inconveniences 
and  improprieties,  as  making  nearly  a  thousand  of  miles  of  unnecessary 
travel,  with  occasional  natural  facilities  for  securing  food  and  drink  for  man 
and  beast ;  while  the  Central  Route  abounds  in  the  best  of  station-halts  of 
Providence's  own  manufacture.  Not  content  with  establishing  this  round 
about  mail  route  across  the  continent  in  preference  to  the  one  which  the  God  of 
nature,  the  buffalo,  common  immigration,  the  requirements  of  civilization, 
Tom  Benton  and  John  C.  Fremont  had  all,  in  larger  or  more  humble  form 
pointed  out,  a  decided  deadly  indisposition,  an  open  sectional  animosity  is 
shown  by  James  Buchanan  and  his  cabinet  against  the  path  which  has  Salt 
Lake  City  for  its  intermediate  post,  and  St.  Joseph  and  Placerville  for  its 
actual  either  terminus.  A  bill  shortening  the  schedule  time  on  this  central 
road  is  defeated  by  retention  at  the  White  House  until  after  the  adjournment 
of  Congress,  and  the  singular  insolvent  breaking  up  of  Chorpening  &  Co  , 
the  contractors  for  the  central  route,  is  not  covered  by  the  issue  of  new  bids 
and  the  signing  of  fresh  agreements  with  competent  parties. 

Even  the  proposition  for  a  Telegraph  Line  across  the  plains  meets  with 
audacious  disfavor  at  the  hand  of  the  "  Old  Public  Functionary."  The  tor 
turing  limbs  of  the  lobby  are  gladly  brought  into  requisition,  and  the  sensi 
ble  and  practicable  measure  upon  which  the  powerful  Telegraph  Companies 
of  the  East,  after  much  and  candid  consultation  settle,  is  emasculated  and 
finally  absolutely  defeated  by  the  wire-pullers  in  the  galleries  and  out 
halls, — who  receive,  as  they  certainly  merit,  the  applause  of  Buchanan  and 
Holt  and  the  execration  of  an  inconvenienced  people.  "A  sort  of  a  plan  " — so 
it  has  been  described  by  an  observing  Statesman — not  a  telegraph  line  stock 
holder— "a  sort  of  a  plan,"  received  bill-shape,  and  having  passed  both  Houses 
of  Congress,  obtained  the  miraculously  gracious  assent  of  the  President.  We 
are  certain  of  one  use  in  it — it  materially  defers  progressive  labor  on  the  Cen 
tral  Line ;  and  in  these  matters,  how  not  to  do  it,  is  the  grand  idea.  Another 
batch  of  lacradaisical  lads,  graduated  from  that  finely  renowned  institution, 
West  Point  Academy,  Mill  probably  be  sent  forth  during  the  coming  year  to 
perambulate  between  St.  Louis  and  Guaymas ;  gathering,  at  an  enormous 
expense,  materials  for  another  "Pacific  Rail  Road  book  ;"  in  which  the  habits 
of  the  angle-worms  discovered  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  will  be 
compared,  in  a  masterly  array  of  scientific  terms,  with  the  daily  avocations 
of  a  new  style  of  pismire  unearthed  near  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Gulf 
of  California. 

It  is  indisputable  that  not  only  direct  Rail  Road  propositions  have 
met  with  Executive  disfavor,  and  through  such  disapprobation,  defeat, 
but  every  plan  for  trans-continental  mail  or  passenger  carriage  which 
squinted  toward  the  sometime  initiation  of  a  substantial  Rail  Road  project, 
has  been  "  frowned  down"  with  an  implacable  wickedness. 

Now  upon  what  footing  have  our  foreign  relations  been  placed  by  this 
administration  ?  How  stand  we  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  outside,  from  the 
conduct  of  our  administration  in  the  great  diplomatic  trials  through  which  it 
has  necessarily  had  to  pass  ?  I  will  speak  briefly  of  two  of  our  admin 
istration  achievements  in  this  line. 

Fellow  citizens,  the  history  of  the  administration  of  James  Buchanan  is 
not  entirely  made  up  of  serious  wrongs,  unenlivened  by  any  pleasing  incidents. 
A  governmental  Rule  abounding  in  deliberate-studied  crimes,  could  not  but 


.  • 

. 

9 

have  its  record-pages  illustrated  with  engravings  representing  scenes  wherein 
blundering  stupidity  made  up,  or  marred  a  plot  with  eccentric  effects. 

Fellow  citizens,  I  do  not  intend  or  wish  to  excite  personal  envy  in  the 
breast  of  any  one  of  you,  but  the  man  who  stands  before  you  has  enjoyed  the 
tremendous 'honor  of  shaking  hands  with  ex-Paraguay  Commissioner,  Jim 
Bowlin.  At  the  time  when  we  crossed  palms  he  had  not  covered  his 
brow  with  the  transcendently  glorious  laurels  which  now  crown  his  frontis 
piece.  But  he  bore  high  titles  even  then.  O,  yes.  Don't  be  mistaken. 
He  has  been  a  distinguished  character  for  many  a  long  year.  He  had  then 
been  a  Judge  ;  I  am  confident  of  that,  for  he  was  called  "  The  Rubicon  Judge" 
in  those  days.  He  it  was, — it  should  ever  be  borne  in  mind — who  wel 
comed  Martin  Van  Buren  to  the  Mississippi  Valley  "as  the  first  President  who 
had  ever  crossed  the  Rubicon ;  and  who  had  retired  with  the  universal  con 
sent  of  the  American  people."  A  good  hearted,  plainly  bred  clever  fellow, 
an  average  representative  of  a  half- way  adopted  son  of  Pike,  is  Jim  Bowlin  ; 
at  least  such  he  was  when  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  greeting  him,  and  I  do 
not  believe  that  his  recent  triumphs  in  the  diplomatic  world  have  converted 
him  into  any  other  species  of  humanity.  I  am  under  the  impression  that  his 
social  qualities  were  familiarly  indicated  by  another  popular  title,  springing 
undoubtedly  from  his  frequent  words  of  invitation  :  "  Take-a-drink  Bowlin." 

I  heard  a  distinguished  Divine,  a  few  Sabbath  evenings  since — the  Rev. 
Dr.  Scott  of  San  Francisco — preach  an  interesting  discourse  on  the  Prophet 
Jonah,  He  said  that  neither  he  nor  any  other  commentator  could  determine 
precisely  why  it  was  that  the  Lord  selected  Jonah  for  the  Nineveh  commis 
sion.  I  thought  at  the  time  that  it  might  be  profitably  suggested  to  the 
Dr.,  that  it  was  because  Jonah  was  a  small  man,  of  size  convenient  for 
the  big  fish  to  swallow.  But  the  preacher  continued  by  saying  that  we  could 
not  tell  why  it  was  that  Wellington,  or  Napoleon,  or  Washington  were 
selected  for  the  work  which  they  performed.  It  was  the  will  of  the  omnip 
otent  director  of  all  things  that  they  should  occupy  the  positions  which  they 
did.  In  like  spirit  I  may  say  to  you,  my  friends,  I  cannot  possibly  attempt 
to  assign  the  reasons  which  actuated  the  Old  Public  Functionary,  when  he 
selected  Jim  Bowlin,  the  Rubicon  Judge,  for  the  Paraguay  Commission.  All 
we  can  say  is,  Jonah  traversed  the  raging  sea  in  ship  and  in  the  whale's 
belly,  and  finally  did  the  work  given  unto  him  in  a  manner  which  brought  a 
rebellious  people  to  their  repenting  senses  and  obedience ;  Napcleon  and 
Wellington  fulfilled,  each  in  his  own  splendidly  appointed  sphere,  the  terms 
of  their  foreordination  ;  Washington — in  whatever  connection  we  use  that 
name  let  us  invoke  an  immortal  blessed  memory — Washington  showed  him 
self  a  well  chosen  man  for  his  station  and  his  country  ;  and  Jim  Bowlin — 
honored  by  me,  I  trust,  in  this  association  with  prophets  and  warriors  and 
statesmen — acquitted  himself  wrh  unexpected  and  masterly  diplomatic  skill ; 
he  modestly  received  his  broad-sealed  parchment ;  ascending  the  Paraguayan 
Rubicon,  withouf  the  firing  of  a  gun  or  the  shedding  of  a  drop  of  blood  he 
secured  $10,000  and  an  amicable  "arbitration ;"  he  returned  to  his  own  country 
covered  with  glory,  and  casting  his  dispatches  at  the  feet  of  the  Executive  of 
the  nation,  he  retired  from  diplomatic  life  with  the  universal  consent  of  the 
American  people. 

A  peevish,  petulant,  overbearing  man  by  the  name  of  Hopkins,  obtained 
the  Paraguay  Consulship  from  our  government  for  the  purpose  of  "  dignify 
ing  his  cigar  business."  He  provoked  a  quarrel  with  President  Lopez  by 
insisting  upon  having  himself  called,  in  the  papers  of  his  company's  charter, 
a  "general  agent,"  instead  of  "  agent,"  simply.  The  result  was  that  the 
Rhode  Island  Cigar  Co.,  of  which  Hopkins  was  the  general  agent,  were  com 
pelled  to  suspend  work,  and  their  hands  left  the  country  and  returned  to  the 
States.  Then,  in  direct  opposition  to  a  formal  and  legitimately  issued  decree 
by  Lopez,  Captain  Page  sent  the  Waterwitch  into  the  Parana.  They  were 
fired  at  from  Fort  Itapira,  three  blank  cartridges  being  followed  by  a  shot 
which  peirced  the  after  port,  cut  away  the  wheel  and  killed  the  helmsman. 


10 

This  fire  was  retumed  from  the  Waterwitch  so  effectively  as  to  result  in  the 
killing  of  fifteen  of  the  Itapira  fort  men.  Subsequently  it  was  ascertained  that 
this  firing  from  the  fort  was  intended  to  "  pass  ahead  "  of  the  American  vessel 
and  bring  her  to.  And  it  was  further  established  that  even  the  order  for  this 
"  firing  ahead  "  was  countermanded  by  the  President,  but  not  in  time  to  pre 
vent  the  disastrous  shot.  It  is  now  conceded  that  there  was  on  hand  an  abun 
dant  force  for  the  purpose  of  immediately  asserting  our  rights  and  promptly 
demanding  a  proper  acknowledgment  or  restitution.  Capt.  Page  tells  the 
world  that  if  he  had  had  two  extra  guns  on  board  his  steamer,  he  would  have 
pledged  his  life  for  a  successful  attack  upon  Fort  Itapira.  At  Montevideo 
Commodore  Salter  was  stationed  with  the  Germantown  and  the  Savannah 
flag-ship.  Then  there  were  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  three  vessels,  and  for 
the  smaller  one  of  these,  the  Captain  in  command  required  but  two  shell 
guns  to  enable  him  to  answer  with  his  reputation  and  life  for  an  effort  to 
batter  down  all  of  Lopez's  defences.  But  this  Old  Public  Functionary  thinks 
it  wise  and  proper  to  make  an  economical  demand  for  satisfaction,  by  fitting 
out  a  fleet  of  fifteen  vessels  of  war  at  an  expense  of  millions  of  dollars  ;  and  a 
fleet  of  war  vessels  was  expressly  prepared  for  this  service  of  reparation  or 
revenge.  But  grim-visaged  war  had  no  horrid  front ;  for  in  the  van,  well 
tucked  up  in  the  finest  cabin,  on  the  fastest  steamer,  was  that  choice  Olive 
Branch  of  our  nation,  that  delightful  dove  of  diplomacy,  Jiin  Bowlin,  of 
Pike.  Reposing  on  his  downy  pillow,  as  he  turned  about  his  head,  heavy  with 
the  weight  of  mighty  verbal  instructions  from  the  Old  Public  Functionary, 
he  could  catch  the  charming  crackle  of  his  authorizing  parchment.  Just  at 
those  moments  he  may  have  been  described — 

Jim  Bowlin  is  a  rolia'  on  the  ocean; 

I've  a  notion,  that  the  motion  makes  him  sick, 

Hi  ho! 

If  it  does  he'll  throw  up,  with  a  terrible  hiccup, 

The  things  that  he's  eat — not  big  parchment — -you  bet! 

Ob,  nol 

Jim  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  of  the  Paraguay,  and  there  ha 
effected  a  landing,  and  commenced  his  extraordinary  career  of  molification. 
At  first  the  native  Generals  were  rather  shy  of  him — but,  Lord  bless  you  ! 
Jim  had  such  winsome  ways,  who  could  withstand  him  !  At  least,  General 
Urquiza  could  not  keep  his  stern  temper  in  the  presence  of  such  a  lovable 
commissioner.  According  to  Jim's  account,  the  Gen.  first  feared  and  distrusted 
the  commissioner,  then  he  "  softened"  to  an  attentive  ear,  then  he  experienced 
a  loosening  of  his  benevolent  and  social  faculties,  and  finally  he  actually  fell 
into  the  hugging  business. 

"  Like  torrents  from  a  mountain's  source, 
They  rushed  into  eacb  others  arms." 

And  all  these  stupendous  facts  we  glean  from  Jim's  official  dispatch. 
Whether,  as  on  the  memorable  occasion,  when  our  junior  Senator  embraced 
one  of  our  Republican  electors,  there  was  any  kissing  in  this  grand  ceremony 
of  recovered  amity,  Jim's  dispatch,  very  unfortunately,  don't  say.  We  are 
all  entitled  to  our  surmises  on  that  point,  which  we  can  predicate  on  our 
knowledge,  be  it  more  or  less,  of  the  customs  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  South 
American  nations.  I  am  ready  at  any  moment  to  state  my  belief  in  the 
premises. 

Well,  James  ascended  the  river  to  the  capital  city,  Ascuncion.  How 
secure  of  the  happy  and  bloodless  accomplishment  of  this  mission  was  James 
Bowlin.  The  war  vessel  had  only  six  rounds  of  ammunition  in  the  magazine. 
Here,  again,  an  improvising  Laureate  might  have  sung  : — 

Jim  Bowlin  reached  bis  port,  ammunition  rather  short; 
Only  hundred  pounds  of  powder  for  his  pounders, 


11 

But  that  was  little  matter ;  he  hadn't  come  to  batter 
Down  the  walls  ot  a  city — that  would  be  a  devilish  pity  ; 

'  T  would  so. 

Jim  had  come  all  dressed  for  Court;  not  to  thunder  down  a  fort : 
Such  a  fashion  of  retort,  wasn't  his  sort,  or  his  forte 

No,  no. 

What  for  should  he  be  lugging  balls  and  powder,  when  his  hugging 
Was  the  way  to  sway  the  chief's  of  Paraguay  ? 

Jes  so. 

No  sooner  does  Jim  reach  the  seat  of  Empire  than  his  embracing  triumphs 
are  renewed,  and  find  their  everlasting  crown  in  the  weakening  of  President 
Lopez ;  and  all  this,  mark  you,  we  learn  from  the  commissioner's  official  dis 
patches. 

But  is  the  business  of  a  foreign  missioner  miserably  restricted  within  the 
narrow  bounds  of  the  formal  specifications  nominated  in  his  authorizing  bond, 
nay ;  Jet  the  history  of  this  mission  teach  otherwise.  If  it  ever  be  meanly 
insinuated  that  Bowlin's  mission  was  not  conducted,  so  far  as  the  main 
object  was  held  in  view,  with  the  most  profound  wisdom,  let  it  be  replied  that 
no  one  can  dispute  the  value  of  Jim's  personal  observations  in  regard  to  the 
Ascuncion  fenrinines.  Or  for  the  sake  of  felicity  of  expression,  the  answer 
may  be  made  in  this  form  : 

Like  tha  messenger  of  Noah,  Jim  went  out  his  cabin  door 

From  the  Ark  in  which  he'd  been  a  sailing  ; 
All  spangled  o'er  with  stars — not  marked  with  ugly  scars, — 

The  President  he  greeted,  overcame  him  and  was  feted, 
By  Lopez — so  he  says; — 

All  trouble  past  bewailing. 

Then,  attended  by  an  aid,  Jim  took  a  promenade 

Through  the  markets  of  the  city  of  the  nation. 
And  he  saw  such  a  sight !  women  dressed  in  cleanest  white, 
Walking  boldly  through  the  street  with  nothing  on  their  feet; 
With  baskets  on  their  arms,  with  faces  full  of  charms— 
This  is  Jim's  own  narration. 

And  very  soon  he  spies,  lots  of  "  beautiful  bright  eyes" — 

"  Handsome  women"  to  be  seen  "  all  day,  nearly." 
But  what  was  very  puzzling,  they  were  clad  in  chf»ap  Swiss  muslin, 
Thickly  flouncing  from  the  waist,  in  the  neatest  kind  of  taste, 
Down  to  the  very  feet  that  went  naked  through  the  street — 

Jim  would  like  to  be  commissioner,  once,  yearly. 

The  soil  was  very  sandy  and  the  ladies  sav,  'tis  handy 
To  walk  without  their  shoes ;  hence  naked  feet  they  chose. 

Now  all  this  is  Bowlin's  truthful  story  ; 
Which  with  form  and  seal  official  prefixed  to  his  initial, 
He  regularly  sent  to  our  ancient  President — 
To  stand  as  eternal  record  of  his  glory 

Now  the  mighty  "  arbitration,"  of  Jim  Bowlin's  own  creation, 

Has  resulted  in  the  singular  decision 
That  Jim  acted  "like  a  tafe"  with  the  Paraguayan  chief, 
When  by  magnetising  pranks  he  "hugged"  50,000  francs — 
As  officially  he  says — from  the  coffers  of  Lopez ; 

And  his  Mission  has  been  treated  with  derision. 

Not  so,  we  must  protest ;  no  doubt  he  did  his  best 

To  cover  all  the  purpose  of  his  station. 

Build  another  fleet  and  arm  her,  to  take  the  wondrous  charmer 
With  the  dollars  he  confesses  he  gained  by  h>s  addresses, 
Back  on  the  briny  way  to  the  land  of  Paraguay; 

There  to  make  due  reparation. 


12 

Let  the  Rubicon  Judge  unfold  the  bright  stars, 
Without  invocation  to  Jove  or  to  Mars, 

Return  to  the  Paraguay  regions  again, 
With  a  fleet  to  convoy;  that  the  world  may  enjoy 
A  second  chance  to  ponder  o'er  this  artful  anaconda, 
Who  will  be  able  to  efface,  with  another  fond  embrice 
All  the  evils  of  the  past  in  which  Bowlin  brave  was  cast, 
And  close  with  satisfaction  the  most  splendid  Foreign  Action 

Of  James  Buchanan's  reign. 

I  have  time  to  but  very  briefly  allude  to  recent  events  connected  with  the 
condition  of  authority  in  the  Island  of  San  Juan.  Fellow  citizens,  we  ought 
to  securely  and  definitely  hold  our  own,  before  we  think  of  reaching  for  new 
territory.  We  ought  to  protect  our  citizens  on  our  own  soil  before  we  seek 
to  establish  a  protectorate  over  Mexico.  The  Island  of  San  Juan  is  as  surely 
our  own  property — one  of  our  finest  national  treasures, — as  Cuba  is  the  prop 
erty  of  the  Kingdom  of  Spain  ;  and  I  submit,  before  we  steal  the  latter,  let 
us  honorably  assert  our  rights  to  the  former.  By  fraud,  by  the  boldest 
lying,  our  Senate  and  President,  in  Folk's  reign — (old  Buck  was  in  the  Chair 
of  Secretary  of  State  then) — were  deceived  into  a  species  of  compromise 
arrangement  on  this  question  of  northern  boundary,  by  which  the  rich  and 
and  beautiful  Island  of  San  Juan  passed  or  was  confirmed,  nominally,  under 
British  dominion.  In  1859,  General  Harney,  as  brave  an  officer  as  ever 
drew  sword  or  pulled  trigger,  had  occasion  to  assert,  though  in  a  mild  form, 
the  sleeping  claim  of  the  United  States  to  that  Island.  Instantly,  there  was 
a  great  stir.  Buchanan  was  in  a  fever  of  excitement.  Cass,  with  the  rec 
ollection  of  a  broken  sword,  was  in  a  cheerful  glow  of  enthusiasm.  Buchan 
an's  cowardice,  however,  made  him  imperative  in  the  Cabinet,  and  Lieut. 
Genl.  Scott  came  hither  as  the  Facificator.  There  has  never  been  any  exact 
revelation  of  matters  connected  with  this  mission.  Harney  went  home, 
however,  and  our  latest  intelligence  from  Washington  brings  intimations 
of  a  coming  trial  by  Court  Martial  of  this  scarred  and  faithful  veteran  for 
his  action  in  this  very  matter.  And  this  is  the  manner  in  which  our  dear 
est  national  possessory  rights  are  treated.  At  the  best,  England  is  gaining 
upon  us  by  a  complete  colonization  on  the  Island ;  and  a  temporary  and 
for  the  British  Lion,  a  convenient  peace  is  obtained  by  a  gracious  permit  to 
our  Government  to  land  a  few  soldiers,  and  occasionally — in  stress  of  weather 
or  for  some  other  ostensibly  compelling  cause — occasionally,  quarter  them 
on  the  beach. 

And  all  this  time,  the  Old  Public  Functionary  is  importuning  Congress 
for  a  $30,000,000  secret  fund  wherewith  to  buy  Cuba,  or  start  negotiations 
for  such  a  purchase.  All  this  time — think  of  it  citizens,  and,  particularly, 
you  adopted  citizens  from  Great  Britain  and  Continental  Europe — all  this 
time,  James  Buchanan,  the  President  of  these  United  States,  is  endeavor 
ing  to  cajole  Congress  into  giving  him  a  $30,000,000  secret  fund,  by  quoting 
to  the  representative  of  a  free  Republican  form  of  government  the  estab 
lished  precedent  of  the  Monarchies  of  the  East !  This  is  his  plea  ;  and,  in 
connection  with  his  outrageous  neglect  of  our  interests  in  the  Island  to  our 
North-West,  it  thoroughly  indicates  his  Southern  sectionalismand  his  tyranni 
cal  disposition. 

And  before  I  leave  these  subjects,  I  will  express  to  one  man  in  an  oppos- 
sing  political  party,  the  thanks  of  a  grateful  citizen.  During  the  excite 
ment  attendant  on  the  outbreak  of  difficulties  on  our  North- West,  there 
was  but  one  paper  and  one  man  in  the  State  of  California,  or  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  speaking  out  clearly,  intelligently  and  boldly  in  favor  of  the  mainte 
nance  of  our  national  rights  in  the  Island  of  San  Juan.  That  paper  was 
the  San  Francisco  Herald,  and  John  Nugent  was  then  i;s  editor.  As  a 
native  of  the  Old  Bay  State,  where  British  aggression  received  its  first  severe 
blows  of  check  and  retaliation,  as  one  who  has  fixed  his  home  within  this 
glorious  sorereignty  on  the  Pacific,  as  one  who  seeks  to  understand  and  value 
aright  the  institutions  of  our  whole  country,  I  step  out  of  my  prescribed  line 


13 

of  remark  and  over  something  of  personal  antipathy,  to  pay  my  highest 
honor,  for  his  patriotic  course  on  this  important  subject,  to  our  Irish  fellow- 
citizen,  John  Nugent. 

Stay  one  moment.  Let  me  not  presume  to  dismiss  this  subject  of  "  For 
eign  Relations  "  without  noticing  one  administrative  "  mission  "  yet  to  be 
engrafted  in  the  history  of  the  reign  of  James  Buchanan.  It  is  a  mission 
which  is  to  be ;  and  which  is  to  be  known  as  both  foreign  and  domestic.  It  is 
a  mission  of  foreign  invitation  and  domestic  reception.  The  President  of  the 
United  States  has  sent  a  billet  doux  invitation  to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  To 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  did  I  say  ?  Ah !  I  made  a  slight  mistake.  The  Pub 
lic  Functionary  has  sent  an  invitation  to  the  Prince  of  Wales'  mamma,  beg 
ging  that  she  will  let  her  darling  boy  come  and  see  the  old  man  before  he 
retires  to  the  shades  of  Wheatland.  What  splendid  ceremonies  we  may 
expect.  How  we  hope  that  the  young  Prince,  who  comes  among  us  at  the 
special  request  preferred  by  James  Buchanan  to  good  Queen  Victoria,  will 
not  be  afflicted  wiih  the  importunities  to  which  "Tommy"  had  to  submit.  And 
what  a  crowning  and  consistent  glory  to  this  administration  this  "  mission" 
will  be,  if  the  President  will  only  appoint  Jim  Bowlin  a  recepaon  committee 
of  one. 

Already  we  hear  the  echo  of  the  Prince's  footsteps  on  our  shores.  We 
hope  that  he  may  not  be  prejudiced  against  our  institutions  and  people  from 
the  sycophant  obsequiousness  of  the  Old  Public  Functionary.  Let  him  abide 
with  us  until  the  4th  of  March  next,  and  he  shall  then  make  an  official 
interchange  of  friendly  salutations  with  a  Republican  Executive,  fit  to  be  our 
President  because  of  the  people,  and  fit  to  sit  with  English  Princes  and 
Kings  because  he  will  be  honest  and  firm  in  the  vindication  of  the  individual 
rights  of  every  American  citizen  on  every  soil. 

It  is  not  possible,  my  foreign  born  fellow-citizens,  that  you  have  forgotten 
the  conduct  of  this  administration  on  the  question  of  personal  security  for  nat 
uralized  citizens  in  distant  and  foreign  lands.  The  position  of  the  Cabinet 
was  distinct  and  unmistakable,  and  it  never  has  been  revoked.  You  men 
from  Great  Britain  and  Continental  Europe,  how  have  you  cherished  demo 
cratic  fellowship  since  the  day  when  a  democratic  administration  repudiated 
your  claims  to  protection  under  the  flag  you  had  sworn  to  adopt  and  fight 
for  as  your  own.  At  this  moment,  the  Regular  Democracy  are  howling 
about  the  "  equality  of  the  States."  What  does  all  this  cry  mean  ?  Simply 
and  purely,  protection  for  "  property  rights,"  so  called,  of  a  white  man  in 
such  negroes  as  he  may  see  fit  to  carry  into  free  territory.  Oh  yes ;  oh 
yes  ;.  they'll  break  up  this  Union  if  the  negro  market  is  not  established  in  the 
Territories  of  the  West.  But  you  may  be  enslaved  and  even  murdered  by 
your  ancient  rulers,  and  not  a  muscle  of  this  great  nation  shall  he  taughtened 
for  your  relief  or  to  avenge  your  fate ;  not  a  nerve  shall  feel  the  injury  thus  in- 
fiicted  on  the  great  body  of  the  Federal  commonwealth  ;  not  a  pulsation  of 
the  national  heart  shall  respond  to  your  appeal  ior  sympathy,  or  the  call 
of  your  friends  for  avenging  recollections  of  your  persecutors  !  Millions  to 
capture  and  re-dungeon  a  nigger,  but  not  one  cent  for  the  protection  of  a 
white  male  citizen  in  foreign  lands.  Disunion  and  anarchy  for  an  "  equality," 
extending  the  area  of  black  bondage,  but  not  a  ripple  on  the  surface  of  Fed 
eral  life  while  you  feel  the  lash  and  sink  to  an  ignominious  grave  under  the 
cruel  and  illegal  force  of  an  European  despot.  Think  of  that,  foreign  born 
citizens  !  Think  of  that.  England  and  France,  and  even  Russia  will  scour 
all  lands,  and  take  all  hazards  to  secure  the  personal  rights  of  their  citizens, 
or  subjects  ;  but  should  you  return  to  your  native  country  and  be  seized  for 
service  therein,  the  stars  and  stripes  would  float  over  you  with  nothing  of  pro 
tective  or  rescuing  significance.  The  President  of  these  United  States  need 
not  tell  the  Queen  of  England  that  her  son  is  safe  with  us.  There  is  a  higher 
protection  for  the  young  Prince  than  Buchanan's  word  can  afford.  But  the 
meanest  child  of  the  coal  pit,  the  poorest  straggler  hitherward  from  the  sterile 
Hebrides,  would  call  for  the  same  o'ershielding  authority  from  the  British 


14 

throne  that. might  be  claimed  by  Alfred,  Prince  of  Wales  and  future  King 
of  England.  And  now,  can  your  minds  be  led  astray  from  the  record  of  this 
rule,  which  has  explicitly  denied  to  you  the  feeblest  effort  for  individual 
liberty  in  a  foreign  land,  to  an  anxious  consideration  about  that  species  of 
internal  "  equality"  which  seeks  to  plant  the  representative  of  an  inferior  and 
shackled  race  in  daily  and  painful  contact  and  competition  with  your  honest 
labor  ?  Pray  God,  never !  never ! 

Fellow  citizens,  when  a  man  past  his  three  score  and  ten  undertakes  to 
become  his  own  sponsor  in  second  baptism  it  is  not  always  right  to  gainsay 
his  assumptions.  James  Buchanan  in  the  midst  of  his  official  documents,  at 
whose  beginning  and  ending  stands  an  everlasting  invocation  of  the  blessing 
of  Almighty  God — first  upon  himself  and  secondly  upon  the  nation  over 
which  he  presides,  Executive — has  chosen  to  christen  himself,  a  venerable 
Public  Functionary.  I,  for  one,  am  reasonably  disposed  to  accept  this  after 
birth  title  with  more  of  sincere  gratitude  than  heart-felt  respect.  There 
is  an  excellent  truth  in  the  appellation,  which  must  be  apparent  after  a  mo 
ments  refleclion.  We  know  that  at  best,  man  is  but  a  vapor  which  appear- 
eth  for  a  little  and  then  vanisheth  away.  But  when  a  man  has  reached  the 
years  of  acknowledged  maturity,  certainly  when  a  man  has  come  to  the  age 
and  enjoyed  the  experience  in  public  life  so  often  boasted  by  and  for  James 
Buchanan,  he  is  generally  credited  with  having  gained  something  of  that 
organic  stability  which  the  world  has  agreed  to  call  Character.  None  of  this 
has  James  Buchanan.  All  his  emotions  and  acts  are  functional,  belonging 
to  no  system  educated  and  regulated  by  voluntary  habits  of  mind  and  body. 
His  purposes,  passions  and  principles  are  of  the  order  cutaneous,  skin  deep— 
nothing  more.  He  is  the  subservient  creature  of  Southern  disunion  jail-birds, 
who  congregate  Congressionally  at  Washington  and  whisper  their  mandates 
to  the  ear  of  his  craven  spirit.  Before  he  was  named  for  the  Presidency  his 
public  life  had  been  a  long  course  of  diplomatic  dotage.  But  he  was  chosen 
by  men  who  knew  his  original  mold  as  well  as  his  particular  antecedents  ; 
and  on  the  strength  of  tha*.  knowledge  he  was  selected  for  the  service  he  has 
performed  with  infamous  concession  and  humility.  Let  no  one  undertake  to 
re-immerse  the  Old  Public  Functionary. 

Fellow  citizens,  Like  other  States  in  the  Union  we  are  represented  by,  per 
haps  I  should  say  we  are  favored  with,  two  United  States  Senators.  For 
them  I  have  but  a  passing  reference.  Our  senior  Senator  has  long  been 
renowned  for  holding  a  very  peculiar  position  towards  his  constituency ;  both 
of  our  Senators  are  now  famous  for  their  anomolous  positions  towards  each 
other.  Mr.  Latham  was  elected  as  a  man  having  Douglas  proclivities — dis 
tinctly  enunciated — both  political  and  personal.  He  goes  to  Washington 
and  at  every  important  juncture  he  votes  squarely  with  the  old  Lime  Pointer 
and  the  sectional  chivalry.  In  particular  we  notice,  Senator  Latham  sup 
ports  in  a  long  harangue,  abounding  in  fustian  flourishes  about  Northern 
Necessities  and  Southern  Resources  and  Capabilities,  the  most,  arrogant  and 
indecent  demands  of  the  secession  wing  of  the  Democracy.  In  this  species 
of  negro  rhetoric  he  even  outvies  Dr.  Gwin ;  with  whom,  however,  this  effort 
places  Latham  in  the  closest  political  fellowship. 

Senator  Latham  comes  home,  and,  after  much  solicitation,  he  makes  the 
important  and  astounding  announcement  that  he  is  against  Gwin,  "  all  the 
time !"  In  the  same  speech  in  which  this  tremendous  personal  declamation 
of  antipathy  has  its  being,  we  discover  a  quasi  defence  of  the  Lime  Point 
swindle  upon  grounds  which  indicate  a  slight  regard  for  the  moral  code  in 
cases  where  demagogue  appeals  and  advantages  are  to  be  gained.  He  seems 
to  concede  the  iniquity  of  the  purchase  and  appropriation  ;  while  he  boldly 
talks  of  its  being  a  "  good  thing"  for  the  mechanics  who  may  receive  employ 
ment  on  the  Government  works  to  be  established  on  this  barren  tract  of  land. 
Then  he  takes  pride  in  standing  up  at*  the  defender  and  advocate  of  the 
Southern  States  of  this  Republic ;  flatly  abusing  his  constituency  with  the 


15 

intimation  that  they  are  disposed  wilfully  or  through  ignorance  to  trample 
upon  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  people  of  any  section  of  the  nation. 

Gwin  favors  us,  presently,  with  a  lengthy  speech,  delivered  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  State  mad-house,  but  uninterrupted  by  a  single  insane  demonstration 
of  favor.     In  this  address,  recited  after  a  cool  interval  from  the  date  of 
Latham's  letter  and  speech,  there  is  no  retort  to  the  ostensible  attack  upon 
and  repudiation  of  himself  by  his  junior  associate.     My  friends,  what  conclu 
sion  are  we  to  deduce  from  all  this  chatter ;  this  local  mouth-heat  on  the 
¥art  of  Latham  and  this  calm  indifference  of  speech  on  the  part  of  the  Dr  ? 
can  perhaps,  best  express  to  you  my  opinion  in  the  premises  by  telling  you 
a  story.     It  may  be  illustrative  of  Latham's  evidence  and  feelings  against 
Gwin. 

A  worthy  old  gentleman,  a  resident  of  one  of  the  New  England  States, 
was  maliciously  prosecuted  for  an  alleged  assault  upon  a  man  whose  charac 
ter  for  truth  and  honesty  was  somewhat  below  the  average  standard.  In  bis 
annoyance,  the  party  charged  with  the  crime  named  bethought  himself  of 
applying  to  the  next  door  neighbor  of  his  accuser,  for  testimony  in  impeach 
ment  of  the  latter's  reputation.  With  this  purpose  in  view  he  made  th,e  next 
neighbor  a  visit ;  and  the  following  conversation  took  place  :  "  Mr.  A.,  you 
know  that  I  have  been  wrongfully  charged  with  beating  your  near  neighbor 
Dr  C — s."  "I  know  that  such  a  charge  has  been  preferred  against  you  by  the 
Dr."  "  You  don't  believe  that  there  is  any  real  foundation  for  the  com 
plaint  ?"  "  No."  "You  know  of  your  own  positive  acquaintance  that  Dr.  C. 
is  a  man  of  bad  character  for  veracity  ?"  "  Well,  I  would  not  believe  him  if 
he  should  tell  me  anything  that  could  possibly  require  confirmation."  "You 
are  not  on  good  terms  with  him  ?"  "  No,  sir,  I  would  not  willingly  associate 
with  such  a  man  as  he  has  proved  himself  to  be."  "Pie  is  an  evil,  untruthful 
speaking  man,  isn't  he?"  "  Most  people  who  have  had  dealings  with  him 
call  him  so."  "  Do  you  know  that  he  is  a  very  dishonest  and  corrupt  man  ?" 
"  I  have  a  very  decided  opinion  on  that  subject."  "  Which  opinion  is  such 
as  to  exclude  your  open  association  with  him  ?"  "  Precisely."  "  Didn't  you 
see  him  take  money  from  the  till  of  your  store  the  other  day,  without  leave 
or  license  ?"  "  I  did."  "  Didn't  he  try  to  conceal  the  money  when  your 
partner  pursued  him  ?"  "He  did."  "  Then  he  is  a  thief,  a  liar,  is'he  not  ?"  "I 
dontknow."  "You  dont  know?"  "No."  "Why  dont  you  know  ?"  "He  said 
that  he  only  intended  to  borrow  the  money  to  pay  some  of  the  laborers  on  his 
new  house."  "  How  much  did  he  owe  his  laborers  ?"  "  $20."  "  How  much 
did  he  take  from  your  drawer?"  "$6o."  "Then  he  didn't  want  all  the  money  to 
pay  his  laborers?"  "No."  "What  did  he  do,  or  what  was  he  to  do  with  the  bal 
ance  ?"  "  He  didn't  tell  me."  "  Have  you  ever  got  any  of  that  money  back  ?" 
"No.'"  "  Did  he  ever  agree  to  pay  any  of  it  back  ?"  "  No."  "  Do  you  expect 
ever  to  get  any  of  it  back  again  ?"  "No."  "Would  you  believe  him  if  he'd  tell 
you,  that  he'd  pay  any  of  it  back  ?"  "  No."  "  Has  he  paid  the  laborers  the 
amount  that  he  owed' them  ?"  "  He  said  he  did  but  I  did  not  believe  him." 
"  Then  you  can,  most  assuredly,  swear  to  his  bad  character  ?"  "No."  "No  ?" 
"No."  "Why  not  ?"  •'  Well,  to  tell  you  the  whole  and  the  exact  truth  my 
dear  friend — to  be  quite  candid  with  you :  my  neighbor  Dr.  C.,  is  a  man  with 
whom  I  do  not  wish  to  associate  or  conduct  myself  in  a  kind  neighborly  way 
or  in  any  form  ;  for  his  welfare  I  have  very  litile  concern  ;  in  fact  I  am  free 
to  state  that  I  hope  that  he  will  meet  with  the  punishment  in  this  world  and 
in  the  world  to  come  which  a  bad  man  like  him  certainly  merits  ;  but  he  is 
a  much  bigger  man  than  I  am,  his  fortunes  are  adhered  to  by  a  good  many 
of  my  best  patrons, — and — well,  the  fact  is,  we  get  our  grists"  ground  at  the 
same  mill,  where  I  have  to  meet  him  every  week,  and  if  I  should  absolutely 
swear  away  his  character,  or  tell  the  truth  about  his  real  character,  he'd 
thrash  me  like  the  very  devil." 

I  come,  fellow  citizens,  to  speak  of  candidates,  parties  and  prominent 
politicians  in  the  ranks.  And  first  in  order  we  have  the  Breckinridge  wing 
of  the  Democracy.  J  meet  their  platforms  and  prolcamations  and  their 


16 

leading  men  with  something  of  positive  pleasurable  emotions.  They 
are  hold,  unscrupulously  so,  in  their  manifestoes,  and  we  know  pre 
cisely  the  positions  they  assume.  They  do  not  wait  and  work  in  ambush. 
They  do  not  tell  any  respectable  white  lies.  We  are  not  confined  to  suspi 
cions  about  their  intentions ;  they  inform  us  clearly  and  in  short  space. 

Breckinridge  is  an  ordinary  man  of  extraordinary  political  education. 
Younger,  and  with  more  of  native  ability  than  Mr  Buchanan,  he  is  falling 
into  the  same  load  of  service.  He  is,  however,  more  legitimately  a  creature 
of  the  Southern  secessionists,  born  and  bred,  as  he  has  been,  in  a  slave  State. 
He  is  a  slave  on  his  own  manor.  He  has  exhibited  a  natural  disposition  to 
be  free  from  the  trammels  of  sectional  position  and  relations  ;  but  he  had  not 
the  brave  spirit  which  could  face  the  stern  commands  of  the  Yanceys  and 
Toombs  and  Slidells  of  the  disunion  oligarchy.  He  managed  to  temporize  a 
little  by  securing  the  election  of  Douglas  ;  but  now  between  the  Little  Giant, 
even,  and  the  Presidential  candidate  of  the  secessionists  there  is  apparently 
a  wide  gulf  of  separation.  Personally,  many  complimentary  things  are  yet 
to  be  said  in  candor  of  John  C.  Breckinridge ;  politically  he  is  thoroughly 
demoralized. 

But  who  have  we  on  the  ticket  for  Vice  President  ?  He  is  recommended 
as  a  man  who  fights  well,  drinks  heartily,  sells  wood  with  fair  measure  and 
spells  the  various  familiar  titles  of  the  Creator  and  Saviour  with  a 
proud  contempt  for  capitals.  It  is  certain  that  his  literary  accomplish 
ments  are  not  represented  as  brilliant.  His  Presidential  letters  have  not 
been  ambitious ;  simply  of  the  ''fell"  and  "stand"  order — he  stands  now  where 
he  fell  on  a  former  occasion.  I  am  not  sneering  at  any  defects  which  Joe 
Lane  exhibits  in  his  grammatical  education — by  no  means.  Should  I  do  so  I 
might  well  fear  that  his  friends  would  retort  in  the  language  of  Dogberry  : 
"  God  has  blessed  Joe  with  a  good  name  :  to  be  well  iavored  is  the  gift  of 
fortune  ;  but  to  write  and  read  comes  by  nature."  Nay,  I  stand  here  to  con 
fess,  in  this  connection,  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  a  man  be  a  fine  or 
even  an  ordinary  scholar  in  order  to  be  accepted  as  fit  for  the  Presidency  or 
the  Vice  Presidency.  Old  Buck  has  had  very  little  original  writing  to  do 
since  he  has  been  in  the  Chair  of  State,  and  Joe  can  employ  an  amanuensis 
and  an  idea-man  as  well  as  Buck, — there  are  very  many  competent  men  who 
will  hasten  to  undertake  the  job  for  him.  Joe  can  certainly  soon  learn  to 
write  "  God  bless  us  "  as  frequently  and  in  as  elegantly  capitalized  style  as 
the  Old  Public  Functionary;  and  he  can  eat  quite  as  much  dirt  as  J.  B., 
if  he  does  presist  in  crossing  a  superfluity  of  fs  whenever  he  attempts  to  spell 
the  vulgar  term.  Who  taunts  ?  I  rather  like  Joe's  original  autography, 
since  he  is  usually  sound  on  alphebetical  supplies — always  up  to  the  legitimate 
demand  for  consonants.  It  may  be  a  long  spell  however  before  Joe  gets 
into  office  as  Chief  or  aiding  Executive ;  and  perhaps  we  would  do  rightly 
in  awaiting  his  hour  of  elevation  before  we  indulge  in  further  comment 
on  the  peculiar  abilities,  qualities  and  acquirements  which  fit  him  for  the 
position. 

The  great  question  now  agitated  between  the  two  factions  of  the  Democ 
racy  is  touching  the  point  of  regularity.  I  am  inclined,  strange  as  my  Doug 
las  friends  may  think  it,  to  credit  the  Breckinridge  wing  with  the  favor  of 
superior  formality.  Let  me  tell  you  in  what  manner,  with  what  understand 
ing  that  concession  is  made,  and  then  you  can  answer  as  to  whether  there 
exists  any  qualifications  in  the  credit.  Caleb  Gushing,  of  Massachusetts,  left 
the  Presidency  of  the  fully  organized,  universally  recognized  Convention  of 
the  entire  Democracy,  that  he  might  receive  the  honor  of  presiding  over  the 
fractional  body  which  nominated  Breckinridge  and  Lane.  In  my  opinion  he 
carried  regularity  with  him.  I  will  tell  you  why.  Ic  all  comes  out  in  a 
story. 

In  the  South- Western  part  of  Berkshire  county,  Massachusetts,  is  an  old 
town  called  Tyringham.  Somewhere  about  the  year  1848,  this  town  was 
divided  ;  a  new  township  was  erected  out  of  the  Southern  section  and  called, 


17 

in  honor  of  one  of  the  famous  battle  scenes  of  the  Mexican  War,  "Monterey." 
In  the  upper  portion  of  Tyringham,  as  it  once  was  in  its  unbroken  lines, 
stood  an  old  "  meetin'  house."  I  remember  it  well,  for  tradition  had  it  that 
some  of  my  ancestral  relations  sat  piously  within  it  for  years  of  Sundays,  and 
listened  to  and  trembled  at  the  foreordination  preaching  there  shed  abroad  ; 
often  times,  meanwhile,  listening  to  and  shivering  with  the  fierce  wintery  winds 
that  were  not  irreligiously  tempered  by  the  introduction  of  warming  appara 
tus  within  the  consecrated  edifice.  The  services  at  this  church  were  in  1848 
principally  sustained  by  a  fund  long  since  established  by  the  saintly  men  and 
women  of  former  generations.  Immediately  on  the  division  of  the  old  town 
followed  the  erection  of  a  new  church  building  in  a  locality  most  convenient 
for  the  Monterey  go-to-meeting  folks.  As  the  members  of  the  new  church 
constituted  a  large  proportion  of  the  old  parish,  they  thought  themselves  enti 
tled  to  the  revenues  of  the  ancient  communion.  Then,  boldly  and  bodily, 
they  snatched  away  the  papers  and  plate  of  the  Tyringham  Church ;  and 
the  right  to  the  same  was  raised  in  a  court  of  law.  John  Branning  was  the 
name  of  the  lawyer  who  took  charge  of  the  suit  for  the  new  parish.  The 
burden  of  his  argument  to  the  jury  was  that  the  majority  of  a  parish  should 
designate  the  use  of  the  common  fund.  At  the  close  of  the  delivery  of  his 
plea  he  came  outside  the  bar  of  the  court-room,  and  was  fiercely  accosted 
by  an  eccentric  Monterey  Church  man,  by  the  name  of  Height,  who  thus 
spoke  :  "  Confound  it,  John  Branning,  you  have  not  touched  the  best  point 
in  our  case  ;  you've  omitted  the  most  effective  point."  "  What  on  earth  is 
that  ?"  exclaimed  Branning,  in  the  tone  and  emphasis  of  a  man  who  conceives 
that  he  has  done  splendid  service,  and  is  horribly  shocked  at  hearing  a  whis 
per  of  dissatisfaction  or  complaint.  "You  didn't  set  out  the  most  telling  thing 
on  our  side."  "  Name  it,"  said  Branning,  with  an  air  of  mingled  mortifica 
tion  and  disgust.  "  You  didn't  mention  that  Ebenezer  Fairfield  had  joined 
our  church."  "  Well,  what  of  that  ?  He's  only  one  man  ;  and  I  dwelt  upon 
the  evidence  that  showed  that  we  represented  the  wealthiest  and  most 
numerous  portion  of  the  old  parish."  "  Only  one  man  !  Confound  it,  don't 
you  know  that  Ebenezer  Fairfield  has  just  come  over  to  our  side  and  been 
chosen  moderator ;  and  don't  you  know  that  he  is,  by  all  odds,  the  biggest 
liar  in  our  community,  that  he  has  back-slid  from  grace  more'n  anyo  ther 
brother  in  the  congregation  ;  and  hasn't  he  served  us  for  a  long  time  as  dep 
uty  pound  driver,  and  got  more  cattle  into  the  pen  than  any  other  man  in 
the  parish  ?" 

On  a  similar  recitation,  I  base  the  regularity  of  Caleb  Cushing's  church  ; 
for  of  all  political  back-sliders  and  liars  he  is  indubitably  the  greatest ;  and 
of  all  the  gatherers  of  human  cattle  voters  lie  has  done  preeminent  service  in 
the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

And  we  have  the  "  Bell  and  Everett  Party  ;"  specially  known  as  the  party 
of  Old  Respectables.  In  their  titles  they  must  necessarily,  it  would  seem, 
adhere  to  the  surnames  of  their  candidates,  since  of  principles  they  are  utterly 
devoid.  The  only  thing  they  put  forward  in  the  shape  of  a  platform  consists 
of  a  couple  of  little  resolutions,  or  of  a  preamble  and  resolution ;  in  which 
they  undoubtedly  attempt  to  Whereas  out  of  credit  and  fashion  all  time 
honored  party  usages,  on  the  plea  of  occasional  abuse,  and  Resolve  them 
selves  into  the  good  graces  of  the  few  men  of  the  land  (  as  they  intimate  ) 
who  favor  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the  laws.  And  the  calm  modesty 
of  the  captains  of  this  host  finds  its  Ararat  when  they  call  themselves  the 
"  Union  party."  As  they  do  not  wish  to  "  mislead  or  deceive  "  the  people, 
they  deal  in  general  references  to  our  glorious  institutions  and  their  glorious 
party  purposes ;  having  nothing  specific  in  their  "  Platform  "  except  their 
sneers  at  all  other  parties,  which,  in  their  estimation,  are  horribly  "  geograph 
ical  and  sectional."  What  does  such  a  "  Platform  "  as  this  amount  to  ? 
Except  as  proof  of  the  tremendous  arrogance  of  the  Old  Respectables,  it 
aggregates  in  nothing.  Besides,  if  we  can  bring  ourselves  to  any  degree  of 
diligent  reflection  upon  the  manifesto  of  such  a  political  organization  as  is 


18 

this,  we  shall  see  that  they  greatly  misrepresent  and  mistake  the  past  and 
misinterpret  the  future.  It  is  not  true  that  partisan  platforms  have  gener 
ally  had  the  effect  to  mislead  and  deceive  the  people ;  on  the  contrary, 
"  experience  has  demonstrated,"  that  parties  without  platforms  in  the  polit 
ical  and  the  religious  world  have  continually  been  guilty  of  such  crimes. 
These  creedless  conservatives  occupy  the  position  of  that  class  of  panacea 
reformers  in  the  religious  world  who  throw  aside  all  formulas  of  opinion,  sanc 
tioned  by  the  agreement  of  the  wise  men  of  many  ages,  and  thrusting  forward 
the  Bible  as  their  Platform,  deduce  therefrom  for  themselves,  the  most  empty 
and  peurile  pretense  about  Apostolic  saintliness  and  Abrahamic  faith.  "  The 
Constitution  and  the  Union,"  shout  the  Bellites  ;"  "  all  but  ourselves  seek  to 
subvert  the  one  and  destroy  the  other  !"  Who  does  not  know  that  this  is  a 
falsehood  ?  What  intelligent  man  does  not  well  understand,  that  excepting 
the  few  fanatics  gathered  under  Yancey  and  Garrison,  in  either  section  of  the 
Union,  the  masses  of  the  people  composing  the  Republican  and  Democratic 
parties  are  loyal  in  heart  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  ? 

I  know  that  a  great  deal  has  been  said  in  ridicule  of  the  Bellites,  on 
account  of  their  large  swell  on  shape  and  broadcloth.  I  cannot  heartily 
join  in  this  diversion.  For  my  part  I  wish  that  every  honest  Republican 
could  sport  as  good  store  clothes,  and  sprinkle  himself — if  his  tastes  were 
depraved  in  that  direction — with  as  much  eau  de  cologue  as  any  of  the  high 
priests  in  this  peculiar  school  of  respectability.  The  finest  apparel  is  not 
a  disgrace  to  any  man ;  nor  is  the  wearing  of  it  offensive  to  the  public  gen 
erally. 

I  know  that  the  members  of  this  party  take  bold  pride  in  the  "  Respec 
table  "  title  which  has  been  prefixed  to  their  own  names,  or  mixed  with  the 
ordinary  observations  concerning  them.  I  was  reminded  of  these  claims  as  I 
came  up  with  a  boat-load  of  their  representatives  from  San  Francisco  a  few 
evenings  since.  I  imagined  that  the  blustering  talk  of  some  of  their  delega 
tion  leaders  on  that  occasion,  comported  about  as  handsomely  with  their  "per 
sonal  respectability  "  conceit,  as  their  single  resolution  agrees  with  their  real 
political  character  and  purposes.  Of  course,  they  had  a  General  for  a  Chief 
tain  ;  and  he  told  the  nastiest  stories  and  indulged  in  the  smuttiest  imagina 
ble  witticisms,  while  his  subordinates  in  the  ranks  of  his  delegation  chorused 
his  filthy  sallies  with  the  coarsest  guffaws.  He  launched  into  my  friend  Love, 
with  great  savageness,  until  the  latter  was  forced  to  enquire  what  more 
indecent  sentences  or  phrases  it  was  possible  for  the  General  to  utter.  The 
General  replied,  that  he  thought  he  could  put  the  cap-sheaf  on  his  dirty  talk 
by  quoting  from  some  "  Black  Republican  speech."  I  agreed  with  him  ;  the 
probabilities  had  been  shown  to  be  that  the  more  respectable,  sober  and  sa 
cred  the  text  selected,  the  more  indecent  it  would  appear  as  delivered  in  the 
General's  cleanest  style. 

And  all  the  members  of  the  Fraternity  had  broad  ribbon  badges  on  their 
coat  lappel,  imitative  of  little  children  at  a  Sunday  school  picnic ;  but  I  had 
an  opportunity  of  hearing,  from  a  reliable  source,  that  a  majority  of  them 
took  their  brandy  cocktails  with  as  much  avidity,  regularity  and  relish,  as  did 
the  constituents  of  the  Douglas  crowd. 

In  fact,  late  in  the  evening  one  of  the  ribboned  representatives  got  a  lit 
tle  out  of  his  soundings  on  the  sea  of  how-come-you-so  ?  He  grew  uproar 
ious  on  the  "  Great  necessity  of  having  literary  men  in  the  chief  offices  of  the 
Government."  On  this  point  he  was  in  the  midst  of  a  vehement  discourse 
to  a  small  knot  of  friends,  who  were  half  humoring,  half  restraining  his  folly, 
when  he  chanced  to  say,  "  I  tell  you  in  the  language  which  Shakspeare  puts 
in  the  mouth  of  Jack  Cade."  "Beg  your  pardon,"  exclaimed  a  Douglas 
interloper  in  the  choice  assemblage,  "  Shakspeare  didn't  write  Jack  Cade." 
"  Well  if  he  didn't,  he  isn't  the  literary  man  I  took  him  to  be."  And  this 
bright  youth,  who  ably  represented  the  "learned  portion  of  the  delegation,  was 
moved  bed- ward  by  his  considerate  friends. 


19 

When  we  examine  the  pretensions  of  this  party  we  find  no  real  basis  of 
favor  except  it  be  proven  to  exist  in  their  candidates.  Mr.  Thomas  H.  Watts 
has  enquired  into  the  significance  of  Mr.  Bell's  Congressional  record,  and  he 
distinctly  announces  the  following  propositions : 

"  1.   A  distinct  repudiation  of  Wilmot  Provisoism. 

"  2.   A  distinct  repudiation  of  '  squatter  sovereignty'  as  long  ago  as  1848. 

"  3.  A  distinct  announcement  that  the  Territories  are  the  common  property  of  the 
States  composing  the  Union  ;  and  that  the  citizens  of  each  State  hare  the  right  to  go 
into  such  Territories,  with  the'r  property  of  every  description,  and  while  there,  to 
have  protection  to  property  and  persons. 

"4.  That  Slavery, as  it  exists  amongus.is  civilly,  morally,and  religiously  liffht; 
sanctioned  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  by  the  Bible,  and  by  the  practice 
of  men  in  till  ages,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  extended." 

This  is  the  extreme  of  the  demands  of  the  party  which  has  for  its  single  idea 
the  propagation  of  slavery.  Mr.  Bell  endorsed  and  forwarded  to  Mr.  Watts, 
within  the  past  three  months,  the  documents  upon  which  this  ultra  pro-slav 
ery  platform  is  based. 

A  strenuous  endeavor  is  being  made  to  rally  the  old  Clay  Whigs  under 
the  Respectable's  banner ;  and  for  the  edification  of  the  men  upon  whom  this 
imposition  is  sought  to  be  practiced,  let  me  quote  from  one  of  Mr.  Clay's 
speeches,  delivered  in  Congress,  in  1850,  on  the  celebrated  compromise  meas 
ures  of  that  year : 

"  And  now,  sir,  coming  from  a  Slave  State,  as  I  do,  I  owe  it  to  myself,  I  owe  it  to 
the  subject,  to  say  that  no  earthly  power  could  induce  me  to  vote  tor  a  specific  meas 
ure  for  the  introduction  of  Slavery  where  it  had  not  before  existed,  either  South  or 
North  of  that  line.  Coming,  as  I  do,  from  a  Slave  State,  it  is  my  solemn,  deliberate, 
and  well-matured  determination  that  no  power  shall  compel  me  to  vote  for  the  posi 
tive  introduction  of  Slavery  either  South  or  North  of  that  (Missouri  Compromise) 
line.  Sii-,  while  we  reproach,  and  justly  too,  our  British  ancestors  for  the  introduc 
tion  of  this  iustiiution  upon  the  continent  of  America,  I  am,  for  one,  unwilling  that 
the  posterity  of  thepresent  inhabitants  of  California  and  of  New  Mexico  shall  reproach 
us  for  having  just  what  we  reproach  Great  Britain  for  doing  for  us." 

Again  he  said  : — 

"  So  long  as  God  allows  the  vital  current  to  'flow  through  my  veins,  I  will  never, 
never,  never,  by  word  or  thought,  by  mind  or  will,  aid  in  admitting  one  rood  of  free 
territory  to  the  everlasting  curse  of  human  bondage." 

And,  in  this  connection,  let  us  remind  the  old  Benton  Democrats — who  are 
also  pathetically  appealed  to  by  the  badge  and  belly  party — that  Thos.  H. 
Benton  in  a  St.  Louis  speech  declared  that  he  envied  Mr.  Clay  for  the  utter 
ance  we  have  last  quoted ;  that  since  he  was  not  able  to  claim  the  original 
authorship  of  such  noble  expressions  he  was  proud  to  adopt  them,  as  embody 
ing  his  own  sentiments  on  the  vexing  question  of  the  day.  So  much  for  M*r. 
Bell, — his  political  record  and  the  conclusions  fairly  to  be  deduced  from  the 
endorsed  copy  thereof ;  and  so  much  for  the  legitimacy  of  the  calls  of  his 
adherents  on  the  true  Union  men,  of  Clay  Whig  and  Benton  Democratic  ante 
cedents. 

But  upon  his  associate  the  Respectables  in  California  and  throughout  the 
North  lay  the  eminent  emphasis  of  eulogium.  Edward  Everett  is  their  great 
political  Deity. 

Fellow  citizens,  I  am  a  native  of  Massachusetts.  I  am  very  proud  of  the 
history  and  I  love  the  institutions  of  that  glorious  old  Commonwealth.  And 
I  am  proud  too  of  her  long  line  of  distinguished  sons,  who  did  patriotic  ser 
vice  on  every  important  battle-field  of  the  Revolution,  and  whose  voices  are 
audible  to  the  world  from  every  council  chamber  of  this  nation,  whence 
the  wisest  and  most  beneficent  measures  for  the  general  welfare  and  pro 
gress  of  the  country  have  proceeded.  I  am  proud  of  her  political,  social  and 
industrial  position,  and  of  the  true  and  strong  men  who  rule  within  her  borders 
to-day.  But  I  am  not  proud  of  Edward  Everett.  I  assume,  that  with  as  much 


20 

gratitude  as  any  man,  I  can  recognize  his  services  in  redeeming  from  sacri 
legious  use  the  tomb  and  home  of  Washington.  I  acknowledge  his  learning 
as  great,  his  rhetoric  as  exceedingly  beautiful,  his  delivery  speech  as  marvel- 
ously  elegant  and  fascinating ;  though  I  conceive  that  in"  every  one  of  these 
scholarly  acquirements  he  has  been  somewhat  over  estimated.  There  arc  a 
considerable  number  of  distinguished  sons  of  New  England  who  are  his  supe 
rior  in  the  particulars  of  which  mention  has  been  made ;  whilst — thank  God 
for  it — there  are  thousands  upon  thousands  who  stand  before  him  on  theiec- 
ord  for  independent  manliness  and  firmness  of  character.  Edward  Everett 
is  a  whispered,  cloister  vowel ;  there  are  no  stalwart  consonants  in  his  compo 
sition.  He  is  a  lute  for  a  lady's  chamber ;  not  a  bugle  for  the  place  of  com 
mand  among  men.  He  is  a  delicate  geranium,  flowering  and  sweet  scented  ; 
not  an  oak,  lifting  strong  and  stern  and  protectfully  to  the  heavens.  In  Idles 
lettres,  he  may  be  accounted  a  royal  Bengal  tiger,  but  in  politics  he  is  a  poo 
dle.  He  may  be  called  popular ;  but  there  can  be  no  hearty  liking  for  such 
a  man  outside  the  parlors  of  an  effeminate  aristocracy,  or  the  dwellings  of 
those  who  exhibit  a  mushroom  avidity  for  shouting  praise,  to  men  whom  they 
suspect  the  social  lords  they  imitate  regard  with  admiration. 

I  am  ashamed  of  Edward  Everett.  Our  people  made  him  Governor. 
Then  he  was  a  Whig  among  thousands,  and  the  moderate  temperature  of  the 
exigencies  he  was  called  upon  to  meet  kept  him  of  a  quiet  mind.  He  was 
elected  as  President  of  our  University,  and  so  far  as  he  served  in  that  capac 
ity,  he  obtained  just  renown.  But  our  Legislature  made  him  United  States' 
Senator,  and  he  was  an  invalid  at  once.  He  had  held  a  seat  in  Congress 
before  this  high  selection,  and  had  received  a  terrible  spearing  from  John 
Kandolph  of  Roanoke.  And  now,  when  a  better,  a  truer  course  was  hoped 
from  him  by  a  constituency  anxious  to  see  him  ascend  honorably  to  the 
greatest  post,  he  fell  mortal  sick.  He  unwittingly  tutored  the  Little  Giant 
in  the  finest  dodge  of  a  dough-face.  According  to  the  telegraphic  dispatches 
we  were  forced  to  believe  that  he  had  local  diseases  all  over  him  in  one  spot, 
and  each  afflicted  organ  was  under  the  heroic  treatment  of  a  special  physi 
cian.  One  disease  caused  him  cruel  pain  when  he  sat  down,  and  a  spinal 
affection  of  an  original  type  required  a  plantation  surgeon  to  exsect  every 
third  vertebra?. 

Edward  Everett  was  in  the  United  States'  Senate  when  the  Nebraska  Bill 
was  introduced  for  discussion  and  action.  Three  thousand  of  the  clergymen 
of  New  England  sent  in  a  solemn  protest  against  the  destroying  of  the  time 
honored  Missouri  Compromise.  Its  introduction  in  the  United  States'  Sen 
ate  was  the  signal  for  the  raising  of  a  storm  of  vile  abuse,  directed  against 
the  Christian  ministers  who  affixed  their  signatures  to  this  paper.  Butler  of 
South  Carolina,  Adams  of  Mississippi,  and  the  Little  Giant  from  Illinois, 
howled  and  foamed  in  their  mighty  rage,  their  righteous  indignation,  at  the 
miserable  3,000  men  who  said,  "  In  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  we  protest." 
Butler  rushed  up  and  down  the  Senate  chamber,  combing  up  his  white  hair 
with  his  fingers,  to  cool  his  brow  from  whence  issued  the  perspiration  genera 
ted  by  the  glowingly  heated  mental  furnace  beneath,  in  the  which — according 
to  the  best  of  his  imaginings — he  was  rolling  the  poor  parsons  of  theNorth- 
Eastern  section  of  the  country.  Dirty  Douglas  resaturated  his  bloated  car 
cass  with  Jamaica  rum,  that  he  might  stimulate  every  nasty  nerve  of  his 
nature  to  the  work  of  licentious  defamation,  and  pour  through  his  putrid 
throat  upon  the  clerical  offenders  the  verbalized  juices  of  an  infernal  malig 
nity.  And  Edward  Everett  had  not  one  bold  word  to  utter  in  defence  of  the 
brethren  in  his  own  profession  and  native  State  which  he  was  representing. 
Like  a  craven  coward — and  such  he  exhibited  himself — he  submitted  tamely 
to  every  indignity,  and  dared  no  retort.  My  friends,  if  he  did  not  then  actu 
ally  deny  the  great  Lord  and  Master  of'  us  all,  he  dishonored  and  dis 
graced  the  old  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  He  responded  to  Doug- 
las'  tirade  of  abuse  by  apologetically  stating  that  he  had  not  read  the  protest ; 
that  it  was  too  long  for  him  to  carefully  examine  and  too  heavy  for  him  to 


21 

carry  to  the  Secretary's  desk.  He  was  opposed  to  its  presentation  in  the 
Senate  at  that  time,  and  desired  to  state  that  he  had  secured  the  transfer  of 
similar  documents  from  the  door  of  the  chamber  of  that  body  to  the  portals 
of  the  lower  House.  Without  this  enumeration,  the  nerveless  character  of 
his  reply  could  be  thoroughly  gleaned  from  observing  the  considerate  treat 
ment  he  receives  at  the  hands  of  Douglas  when  the  latter  renews  his  filthy 
denunciatory  speech:  Douglas  then  has  "no  reproach  to  cast  upon  the  Sen 
ator  from  Massachusetts,  who  is  generally  very  proper  in  his  conduct  as  a 
Senator.  His  explanation  has  set  him  right !"  Of  what  degrading  signifi 
cance  was  such  a  gracious  admission  at  the  hour  of  its  utterance.  Edward 
Everett,  who  laid  broad  and  saintly  foundations  for  a  great  public  reputation 
by  delivering  the  most  elegant  prayers  ever  offered  to  a  Boston  congregation, 
closes  his  political  career  by  doing  obeisance  to,  and  receiving  and  rejoicing 
in  the  exceptional  complacency  of  the  pigmy  pole-cat  of  "  Popular  Sover 
eignty."  And  the  three  thousand  protesting  clergymen,  and  all  the  true  sons 
of  New  England,  humiliated  in  soul  at  the  pusillanimity  of  their  accredited 
representative  in  the  Senate  chamber  of  these  United  States,  whose  peculiar 
province  and  duty  it  then  was  to  have  defended  and  asserted  their  rights, 
were  forced  to  direct  their  sentiments  of  gratitude  and  honor,  for  an  ample 
and  brave  vindication  on  this  occasion,  to  the  old  hero  of  San  Jacinto,  Sam. 
Houston,  and  the  sage  of  Auburn,  William  H.  Seward. 

The  positions  of  Douglas  and  Johnson  in  opposition  to  and  in  association 
with  each  other  are  somewhat  analagous  to  the  mutual  relations  of  Gwin 
and  Latham.  Of  course  there  is  an  apparently  open  cordiality  of  sentiment 
between  them  now ;  but  we  have  the  record  to  indicate  that  as  the  presiding 
officer  of  the  United  States'  Senate,  Herschel  V.  Johnson  would  give  his  cast 
ing  vote  for  the  most  extreme  measures  of  the  secessionists  ;  while  we  have 
some  thin  shadows  of  reason  to  hope  that  Stephen  A.  Douglas  would  not, 
as  President,  agree  to  the  same.  Indeed,  it  is  urged  by  that  class  of  "  inde 
pendent"  papers  who  espouse  the  cause  of  Mr.  Douglas,  that  his  associate  is 
properly  and  judiciously  placed  upon  the  ticket ;  since  the  latter  is  known  to 
entertain  political  opinions  utterly  at  variance  with  the  occasional  and  now 
prominent  declarations  of  the  Little  Giant.  On  this  account — runs  the  rea 
soning — men  of  every  sort  of  opinion,  from  the  upholders  of  the  pith  of  the 
Freeport  speech  to  the  endorsers  of  the  John  C.  Calhoun  scheme  for  a  dou 
ble-headed  Presidency,  can  gather  under  the  shelter  of  his  banner. 

In  some  of  the  expressive  chiselings  found  among  the  ruins  of  an  ancient 
city,  recently  discovered  and  explored,  is  a  slab  of  stone  the  face  of  which  is 
wrought  into  the  representation  of  a  race-course,  on  which  stand  two  horses 
harnessed  with  their  heads  in  opposite  directions.  Speculations  as  to  the 
exact  signification  of  this  flinty  picture  have  struck  fire  from  many  learned 
and  ingenious  antiquarian  quarters,  but  the  prevailing  conclusion  has  been — 
one  of  the  animals  being  much  larger  than  the  other — that  this  told  of  an 
attempt  to  teach  a  small  steed  to  run  backwards.  That  such  an  attempt 
proved  abortive,  we  need  not  criticisingly  examine  any  ancient  sculpture  to 
ascertain.  And  the  experiment  would  seem  to  be  now  in  process  of  renewal 
before  our  own  eyes,  in  the  opposite  hitchings  in  political  traces  of  Douglas 
and  Johnson.  We  will  not  stop  to  consider  which  is  the  smaller  nag. 

You  must  be  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  Marshals  of  the  different  States 
and  their  deputies  are  engaged  in  taking  the  census  of  the  nation.  From 
present  indications  it  is  suspected  that  we  number  about  30,000,000  souls. 
I  have  a  curious  friend  who  employs  a  portion  of  his  time  in  examining  files 
of  eastern  Douglas  papers,  and  cutting  therefrom  the  telegraphic  numerical 
returns  from  Douglas  meetings.  He  already  feels  competent  to  declare  that 
the  census  agents  are  dreadfully  negligent  in  their  business,  as  he  feels  confi 
dent  that  he  has  the  never  lying  figures  to  prove  that  in  New  England  and 
Pennsylvania  alone  there  are  at  least  5,000,000  Douglas  Democrats ! 

If  the  Ilespectables  can  alone  accurately  define  their  party  by  the  em 
ployment  of  generic  titles,  the  followers  of  the  Little  Giant  act  under  still 


22 

greater  compelling  force  when  they  call  themselves  "  Douglas-men."  Douglas 
is  not  merely  their  candidate  and  representative  ;  he  is,  strictly  speaking,  the 
sole  embodiment  of  their  party.  Their  beginning  and  ending  is  in  him.  He 
is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  their  political  schedule.  Can  they  claim  any 
principles  ?  They  ascribe  their  origin  to  Douglas.  Do  they  specify  any 
great  party  purposes  ?  They  quote  from  a  Douglas  phillipic.  Do  they  guar 
antee  the  fulfillment  of  any  promise  contained  in  their  platform  ?  Only  by 
reciting  Douglas  affirmations.  Mark  the  contrast  which  \ve  present.  They 
had  but  one  choice  for  a  candidate.  We  had  a  hundred  men  from  among 
whom  we  made  our  selection.  Instead  of  the  vague  and  uncertain  record  of 
a  very  vacillating  specimen  of  humanity,  we  give  to  the  world  the  clear, 
united  action  of  an  army  of  leaders.  Instead  of  the  occasional,  fitful,  incon 
sistent  dottings  of  a  demagogue  from  which  to  form  a  political  alphabet,  we 
present  the  record  of  a  large  school  of  statesmen,  working  in  perfect  har 
mony  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  for  five  years  past,  with  particular  refer 
ence  to  the  disposition  of  the  main  issues  now  before  us.  They  strive  to 
convince  men  of  the  good  results  which  are  to  flow  from  the  elevation  of  their 
chieftain  to  the  Executive  Chair,  by  pointing  out  his  correct  votes  in  favor  of 
beneficial  measures,  on  the  taking  of  the  final  question  thereon  —  carefully 
concealing  his  tricky  action,  his  delaying  ballots  while  such  bills  are  occupy 
ing  a  promising  consideration  in  the  early  part  of  a  session  ;  we  offer  a  solid 
front  of  between  one  and  two  hundred  Congressional  records,  at  all  times 
and  in  every  stage  and  exigency  of  the  process  of  consideration,  favorable  to 
an  honest  and  liberal  Homestead  Bill,  a  Pacific  Railroad  on  the  Central 
Route,  daily  trans-continental  mails,  the  abolition  of  the  franking  privilege, 
and  the  amendment  of  the  corrupt  mileage  system.  There  can  be  no  mis 
taking  our  position,  there  can  be  no  challenging  our  sincerity;  while  the 
Douglas  men  are  all  in  a  sea  of  doubt  and  uncertainty,  sculling  their  frail 
barks  constantly  around  a  dough-face  decoy  duck,  ever  shifting  its  anchorage 
and  frequently  diving  dexterously  and  long  remaining  under  the  water. 
There  might  be  elements  of  grandeur  and  positive  power  in  the  very  isolation 
which  Douglas  holds,  could  he  insure  his  place ;  but  the  man  who  gains  a 
conspicuous  and  exclusive  individuality  in  a  political  party,  and  before  the 
country,  by  perpetually  dealing  in  compromises  between  natural  emotions 
which  are  evil,  an  overweening  ambition  educated  in  the  small  arts,  and  a 
periodical  sense  of  the  will  of  the  majority  and  the  great  right,  cannot,  when 
harshly  assailed,  count  up  a  sum  total  of  character  which  will  entitle  him  to 
the  sympathy,  much  less  command  the  admiration  of  the  intelligent  peo 
ple  of  a  free  country. 

But  I  wish  to  come  to  matters  nearer  home  when  I  speak  of  the  Douglas 
party. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  was  in  attendance  upon  the  Douglas  Convention  which 
held  its  sittings  in  one  of  your  churches  a  few  days  since.  Of  what  was  it 
composed  ?  It  was  a  beautiful  compound  ;  a  bottle  of  all-sorts.  No  one  can 
disguise  or  successfully  attempt  to  controvert  the  fact  that  the  preponderating 
influence  in  that  Convention  was  exerted  by  men  who  but  one  short  year  ago 
were  the  strongest  adherents  to  the  administrative  fortunes  of  James 
Buchanan.  The  men  of  ancient  Douglas  faith  were  permitted  a  small  voice 
in  the  deliberations ;  but  only  one  genuine  consistent  Douglasite  found  a 
place  on  the  electoral  ticket. 

The  Douglas  Convention  was  presided  over  by  a  gentleman  for  whom  I 
have  much  respect,  a  man  admirably  adapted  from  his  experiences  to  occupy 
the  position  which  he  was  chosen  to  fill.  Mr.  T.  N.  Quinn,  of  Tuolumne,  has 
presided  over  the  deliberations  of  the  State  Senate,  and  is,  consequently, 
familiar  with  parliamentary  rules.  I  do  not  say  that  he  had  enjoyed  a 
higher  discipline,  fitting  him  for  the  place  of  President  of  the  Douglas  Con 
vention,  but  he  was  fresh  from  his  recently  assumed  superintendence  of  the 
State  Prison. 

The  President  was  surrounded  by  a  brilliant  galaxy  of  statesmen. 


23 

There  was  that  active,  eloquent,  huge-thighed  apostle  of  liberty,  that 
splendid  knight  of  the  trencher,  that  political  Wandering  Jew  and  Wilkins 
Micawber — Gen.  J.  W.  Denver.  This  cosmopolitan  cormorant  has  been  in 
duced,  by  great  solicitation,  to  retain  his  carpet-bag  in  this  State  a  few  months 
longer,  in  order  that  he  and  his  friends  may  count  the  last  small  chances  of 
his  "  turning  up "  in  the  United  States'  Senate.  There,  pompously,  he 
sprawled  in  all  his  physical  greatness ;  there  he  shone  in  all  his  silent  oratory. 

The  huge-thighed  had  one  beside  him  whom,  1  must  confess,  I  was  sorry 
to  see  in  such  queer  company — a  man  in  whom  our  late  Senator  reposed 
much  confidence  and  reliance.  There  sat  General  Reddington,  as  large  as 
the  Chrysopolis,  with  all  her  ^streamers  floating  on  the  breeze.  He  had  his 
big  stick  firmly  grasped  in  both  hands,  and,  at  the  wink  from  Gen.  Denver, 
he  pummeled  plaudits  with  the  intensest  vigor.  It  was  indeed  a  sad  sight  to 
see  such  a  man  in  such  business,  in  such  a  place. 

And  there  was  Joe  Scoby,  of  Placer,  secretary — the  excellent  youth  who 
gratuitously  and  without  petition,  obtained  an  indefinite  leave  of  absence 
from  our  State  Legislature,  which  for  years,  and  during  the  majority  of  all 
sections  of  the  Democracy,  he  has  graciously  favored  with  his  disinterested 
presence. 

And  there  sat  Terence  Foley — that  brave  old  remnant  of  the  Irish  Democ 
racy  ;  looking  a  little  strangely  about  him  as  though  he  felt  something  un 
pleasant  in  his  rear ;  and  no  wonder,  for  immediately  behind  him  sat 

Dr.  Powell,  of  this  city — familiarly  known  as  "  Cheer  Powell."  It  was 
inevitably  remarked  that  the  Cheer  now  allows  his  locks  to  show  their  genu 
ine  silver  color ;  having  escaped  the  business  of  initiation  in  the  dark  lantern 
camp,  where  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  dye  his  hair  in  order  to  properly 
attend  to  the  mysterious  ceremonies  connected  with  the  solemn  pledging  of 
novitiates  to  vote  against  all  men  of  foreign  birth  and  Roman  Catholic  reli 
gion.  Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  would  not  cast  a  grieving  reflection 
on  the  evidences  of  age — far  from  it.  Furthermore,  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  Cheer  is  capable  of  going  into  the  hair-dyeing  business  with  such  ques 
tionable  purposes  in  view  as  have  been  credited  to  a  pioneer  member  of  the 
Custom  House  in  San  Francisco,  who  blacked  his  hirsute  coverings  that  he 
might  enter  the  County  Hospital  in  disguise  and  secure  therefrom  invalid 
voters  for  a  Lecompton  primary  election. 

And  there  was  Jim  Coffroth,  ready  and  happy  to  boast  of  his  ancient 
Know-Nothing  affiliations,  but  not  in  a  hurry  to  relate  his  political  experience 
within  a  year's  record. 

And  there  was  Billy  Long,  that  fine  little  coagulated  bunch  of  self-conceit, 
almost  yearly  on  the  county  race-track  for  office,  and  almost  invariably  for 
tunate  in  "  living  to  fight  another  day." 

And  these  two  latter  gentlemen  are  elegant  representatives  of  a  new 
school  of  men  which  has  arisen  in  the  present  Douglas  party.  From  their 
frequent  gyrations  and  their  novel  speech  and  habit  of  to-day,  they  may  be 
called  the  turn-spits  of  that  party.  They  spit  upon  the  Douglas  platform 
and  upon  Douglas'  self,  but  believing  that  he  has  the  inside  row  of  Breckin- 
ridge  on  the  White  House  course,  they  enroll  themselves  in  the  ranks  of  his 
followers.  They  expectorate  their  phlegm  on  the  head  of  the  Little  Giant, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  they  manage  to  take  a  good  square  hold  of  his  coat 
tails.  Of  course,  if  Douglas  should  be  elected,  they  will  sail  into  some  fat 
office  under  his  administration  in  a  foaming  sea  of  saliva  ! 

But  how  can  I  finish  the  pencilling  of  such  a  picture  ? 

Do  not  let  me  forget  or  neglect  to  mention  the  presence  of  the  Little  Giant 
from  El  Dorado,  John  Conness.  In  subdued  and  plaintive  tones  his  voice 
was  occaionally  heard  as  he  rose  to  submit  a  "few  suggestions"  to  the  Conven 
tion.  He  undoubtedly  felt  that  he  was  in  a  motley  gathering :  amon<*  a 
crew  not  at  all  of  his  ilk.  He  was  now  and  then  graciously  permitted  to  pipe 
a  few  tame  phrases,  and  then  his  re-seating  was  the  signal  for  "  an  ominous 


24 

drawn  silence,"  which  seemed  to  speak  from  the  great  majority  of  the  Con 
vention  :  "  So  much  endurance  of  Little  John  Conness." 

But  here  a  compunctious  thought  comes  over  me.  Here  am  I  over 
whelmed  by  recollections  which  I  have  no  spirit  to  interpret.  There  was  one 
name  which  could  not  be  decently  pronounced  in  that  Convention  ;  no  mem 
ber  dared  to  breathe  it  in  grateful  memory  or  honoring  testimonal.  Nor 
will  I  abuse  the  sleep  of  him,  who  in  a  brief  life 

"bore  that  name 
Nobly  up  the  paths  of  Fame," 

by  presuming  to  speak  it  in  this  immediate  connection.  Ah !  they  knew 
full  well,  that  if  he  had  been  suffered  to  live  until  this  time  his  voice  would 
not  have  been  raised  in  their  midst.  They  felt  that  if  he  was  permitted  to 
view  their  actions  from  the  unseen  world,  he  looked  upon  those  associated 
in  that  body  who  had  once  been  his  soldiers  in  the  great  battle  for  political 
equality,  with  unfeigned  sorrow  and  unmitigated  contempt. 

But  I  have  no  heart  to  talk  of  these  things.  Yet  there  is  one  incident  in 
in  the  proceedings  of  that  Convention  which  I  am  compelled  to  notice.  I 
remember  the  only  testament  made  by  the  late  Senator,  which  has  ever  been 
proven  on  earth  or  in  heaven  :  "  Protect  my  honor." 

While  Mr.  Broderick  was  traveling  over  this  State  during  the  last  cam 
paign  he  encountered  many  "  dirty  dogs,"  who  took  advantage  of  his  bold 
and  generous  invitation  for  a  public  discussion  on  Federal  and  State  politics,  by 
mounting  the  stand  and  indulging  in  low  scurrilous  personalities.  At  least 
three  of  those  creatures  were  delegated  to  the  late  Douglas  State  Conven 
tion  ;  and  of  that  number  not  one  has  a  worse  record  in  this  particular  than 
a  delegate  from  a  Southern  county  in  this  State.  When  Broderick  died  he 
received  many  eulogiums ;  but  none  more  loud,  unqualified,  and  apparently 
sincere  than  that  given  by  an  old  friend  from  the  county  of  El  Dorado.  In 
Central  Committee  meetings,  at  private  conversations,  John  Conness  of  El 
Dorado,  spoke  in  terms  and  tears  of  anguish  of  the  fate  of  David  C.  Broder 
ick.  But  when  John  Conness  finds  that  he  is  allowed  to  repeat  a  few  words 
in  the  recent  Douglas  Convention,  what  says  he  ?  He  voluntarily  rises  in 
his  place,  and,  for  his  longest  speech,  pronounces  a  eulogy  on  the  man  who 
had  most  bitterly  slandered  the  late  Senator ;  elevating  to  the  skies  the 
man  whom  Broderick  denounced  as  treacherous  and  untruthful. 

[  A  voice  :  "  Name  him."] 

T.  C.  Ryland,  of  San  Jose.  Upon  this  man  did  Conness  seek  to  throw 
the  mantle  of  honor,  by  heaping  up  laudatory  adjectives  in  his  behalf.  Why, 
fellow  citizens,  this  Ryland  had  the  temerity  to  mount  the  rostrum  in  San 
Jose,  from  which  our  Senator  had  just  been  speaking,  and  declare  that  the 
latter  had  not  shown  himself  a  friend  of  the  overland  mail  bills  !  Mr.  Brod 
erick  in  reply,  and  in  Ryland's  face,  said  :  "  The  moment  he  took  the  stand 
he  commenced  making  false  charges."  And  again,  "A  man  who  in  one  week 
changed  from  Know-Nothingism  to  Catholicism,  is  not  to  be  trusted — 
ought  to  be  carefully  watched."  And  this  is  the  man  whom  John  Conness 
now  praises  to  the  limit  of  his  faculties  as  "  an  honorable  young  man,"  "a  man 
who  would  be  a  credit  to  any  party," — "  a  trustworthy  man  is  young  Ryland 
of  San  Jose." 

My  friends,  it  has  occured  to  me  that  the  name  and  the  scenes  attendant 
upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Broderick  have  been  recited  on  too  frivolous  occasions, 
and  by  those  unqualified  from  personal  acquaintance  and  deficient  in  ability 
and  taste  for  the  delicate  task.  I  think  it  unseemly  in  those  who  were 
entire  strangers  to  him  to  attempt  to  arouse  by  personal  reference  the  indig 
nation  of  those  who  both  knew  him  intimately  and  labored  with  him  harmo 
niously,  while  he  strove  for  the  political  redemption  of  California.  For  my 
part,  I  assume  nothing,  either  on  account  of  my  connection  with  him  or  my 
definite  knowledge  of  the  grief  and  purposes  of  his  true  friends.  But  I  will 
undertake,  here  and  everywhere,  to  expose  to  every  honest  man's  contempt, 


25 

the  hypocritical  summer  friends  of  David  C.  Broderick  ;  who  wept  immedi 
ately  at  his  fall,  but  who  now  seek  to  crawl  into  political  affiiliation  with  his 
constant,  bitterest  and  most  unscrupulous  enemies,  by  practically  and  directly 
denying  the  virtue  of  the  burning  words  of  condemnation  which  those  oppo 
nents  received  from  the  mouth  and  heart  of  the  Senator  now  sleeping.  Let 
them  not  contribute  to  raise  a  marfcle  monument  to  his  memory,  while  they 
pollute  that  memory  with  sycophant  homage  to  the  creatures  who  joined  in 
the  howl  that  hunted  him  down. 

Fellow-citizens,  the  public  acts  and  the  parting  injunctions  of  a  great  and 
good  man  are  the  choice  property  of  the  nation  he  has  served.  "  Protect 
my  honor ;" — protect  from  indignities  the  memory  of  a  man  who,  while  liv 
ing,  exerted  all  his  energies  to  sustain  the  honor  and  enhance  the  interests 
of  California.  We  have  before  us  his  image,  surrounded  by  the  drapery 
of  mourning.  It  is  in  a  fit  place,  among  the  real  protectors  of  his  honor. 
If  we  did  not,  all  of  us,  realize  his  worth  upon  our  side  of  the  great  contest, 
while  he  was  living,  we  do  appreciate  it  now  he  is  dead.  If  we  had  anything  of 
personal  or  political  antipathy  then,  we  have  only  reverence  now,  and  a  fixed 
resolution  to  avenge  his  fall.  His  honor  we  now  protect ;  and  all  honor  we  pay 
to  him  for  his  faithful  public  service.  And  as  a  party  we  will  prove  our  sin 
cerity  in  this,  when,  on  the  first  or  second  day  of  the  coming  legislative  ses 
sion,  resolutions  will  be  introduced  into  the  Assembly,  expunging  from  the 
record  the  false  and  disgraceful  resignation-request  passed  and  dispatched  to 
Mr.  Broderick  by  the  Legislature  of  '59,  under  the  corrupt  compelling 
influence  of  the  Custom  House. 

I  have  the  assurance  that  had  Mr.  Broderick  lived  to  this  time,  he  would 
have  been  one  of  the  great  leaders,  if  not  one  of  the  candidates  of  the  national 
Republican  party.  He  rnever  could  have  supported  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 
Over  and  over  again  he  expressed  to  me  his  sentiments  of  scorn  and  detest 
ation  for  the  Little  Giant.  Over  and  over  again  he  repeated  the  story  of 
Douglas'  timidity  and  attempted  treachery  on  the  introduction  of  the  English 
swindle  ;  denouncing  him  as  a  political  coward  and  charlatan. 

Said  Mr.  Broderick  to  the  Hon.  Wm.  J.  Shaw,  of  San  Franciscc,  when, 
some  years  since,  the  latter  intimated  his  purpose  of  joining  the  Republican 
ranks,  "Wait,  Mr.  Shaw,  wait  a  little  longer,  until  we  can  all  go  over  together." 

But,  fellow-citizens,  one  would  have  thought  that  some  of  the  more  sensi 
ble  men  of  the  old  anti-Lecompton  ranks,  would  have  been  exercised 
with  emotions  of  disgust  at  their  new  bedded  political  associations  in  the 
recent  Douglas  State  Convention.  Might,  we  not  lawfully  be  led  to  suppose 
that  as  they  looked  carefully  over  that  heterogeneous  gathering,  they  might 
have  been  constrained  to  repeat  the  language  of  an  ancient  poet,  on  an  occa 
sion  of  great  similarity  :  oanCTOft  OfifBfc 

The  old  man  had  been  suffering  for  a  long  time  from  rcfts€wi|fe  which  were 
the  direct  legacies  of  a  life  of  dissipation  and  debauchery.  He  was  rejoiced  on 
being  told,  one  evening,  by  his  physician,  that  he  would  find  by  his  bed-side 
the  next  morning  a  preparation  which,  if  well  stirred  and  taken,  would  pro 
duce  his  sure  return  to  health  and  vigor.  On  waking  the  next  day,  he  dis 
covered  on  the  stand  by  the  side  of  his  couch  a  large  goblet,  filled  with  a 
many  patch-colored  fluid.  He  reached  out  his  emaciated  hand  and  with  a 
spoon  stirred  the  compound.  While  the  liquid  was  in  motion  it  entirely 
assumed  an  indiscribable  unity  of  shade  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  motion  ceased 
the  elements  retired  to  their  related  particles,  and  the  large  globules  com 
prising  the  seperate  doses,  thus  placed  together,  were  distinctly  visible.  The 
old  man  leaned  over  and  smelt  the  stuff.  He  sneezed  from  the  oflensiveness 
of  the  odor.  Then  raising  himself  in  bed  he  took  up  the  goblet  and  held  it 
between  his  organs  of  vision  and  the  window.  He  might  as  well  have 
essayed  to  look  through  a  stone  wall.  Then  he  courageously  ventured  on  a 
sip.  A  terrible  contortion  of  countenance  followed  on  the  taste.  He  returned 
the  vessel  to  the  stand  and  folding  his  arms  he  contemplated  it  for  some  time 
in  silence.  At  last  he  broke  forth  in  the  following  strain  : 


26 

That  I  am  sick  there  'S  no  doubt; 
My  swollen  limbs  denote  the  gout. 
I  cannot  run,  I  citunot  walk 
With  ease,  I  cannot  even  talk. 
My  heart  beats  low,  my  head  is  sore, 
There's  painful  sweat  from  every  pore. 
It  seems  as  if  my  blood  was  gone, 
My  back's  not  stiffened  by  a  bone. 
I  could  not  think,  I  did  not  know 
Th;it  ever  1  so  ill  could  grow. 
But  now,  alas  !  I  must  declare 
I  stand  upon  the  brink  Despair  ! 
All  I've  on  earth  I'd  give  to  save 
My  nervleas  carcass  from  the  grave. 
lJut  Oh,  my  God  !  and  can  it  be 
That  such  a  mixture's  left  for  me  ! 

During  the  sittings  of  the  Douglas  State  Convention  you  enjoyed  a  Doug 
las  ratification  meeting.  I  had  also  the  pleasure  of  being  in  attendance  upon 
that  gathering.  The  big  gun  of  the  evening  was  Joseph  P.  Hoge,  late  chair 
man  of  the  Lecompton  Democratic  Central  Committee.  He  was  as  funny 
and  gracious  and  confused  and  pointless  in  his  remarks  as  if  he  was  arguing 
before  the  Supreme  Court  in  favor  of  the  Peter  Smith  titles,  or  some  other 
swindling  land  claims.  He  opened  his  speech  by  saying  that  he  felt  like  an 
exhorter  at  an  old-fashioned  Love-feast.  Then  he  showed  his  appreciation  of 
a  religious  stand  point  by  regaling  his  congregation  with  all  the  newly  coined 
slang  phrases,  now  fresh  in  market.  Joseph  was  excessively  polite  on  all  sides  ; 
and  I  should  do  him  great  injustice  if  I  did  not  remind  you  that  he  declared 
that,  from  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  our  Presidential  candidate,  he  could 
make  oath  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  if  elected  to  the  Executive  seat,  would  not 
take  any  evil  steps  calculated  to  irritate  our  Southern  brethren  and  precipi 
tate  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  But  if  Joseph  was  clever  toward  us  and 
our  candidate,  he  was  decidedly  sweet  on  the  Respectables.  He  waved 
his  fingers  in  a  handsome  arc  from  his  mouth  towards  the  "Methodist  Church, 
South,"  in  which  the  Bellites  were  assembled — like  a  lady  throwing  a  kiss  to 
her  lover  from  an  upper  story  lattice.  He  \vas  sure  that  the  Respectables 
would  yet  regard  it  as  judicious,  to  cast  their  ballots  for  the  Little  Giant. 
Then,  again  and  again,  came  round  a  reference  to  the  "  Love-feast "  char 
acter  of  the  audience.  An  impression  began  to  settle  upon  my  mind  that, 
in  some  manner,  I  had  encountered  the  story  of  the  origin  of  this  familiar 
idea  of  a  Love-feast,  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker.  Before  he  had  concluded 
his  remarks  my  memory  had  revived  a  conversation,  of  the  pertinence  of 
which  you  can  judge  after  a  brief  repetition. 

In  the  spring  of  1857,  as  the  correspondent  of  one  of  your  city  journals,  I 
was  travelling  through  Carson  Valley.  In  the  course  of  my  journeyings  I 
met  an  old  Mormon  recently  from  Salt  Lake,  still  earlier  from  Illinois,  and  a 
native  of  Yorkshire,  England.  He  was  quite  an  entertaining  old  chap,  in  his 
way  and  with  his  saintly  experiences  which  he  related  with  the  relish  of  a 
prophet.  In  the  course  of  our  talk  he  mentioned  in  some  important  con 
nection  the  name  of  Joe  Hoge.  "  Who  ?"  enquired  I.  The  name  was 
repeated,  with  the  additional  sentence — "  Don't  you  know  Jo-ah  Ho-ag."  "  I 
do  not,  indeed,"  replied  I  "  What !  not  know  Jo-ah  Ho-ag !  And  you  be 
a  paper-mon  and  live  in  California  and  dun  know  Jo-ah  Ho-ag  ?"  "That's 
the  fact,"  said  I,  "  however  much  it  may  astonish  you."  The  man  looked  at 
me  with  an  expression  not  of  doubt  but  of  decided  unbelief.  "  I  have  not 
been  long  in  the  State,"  I  remarked,  in  an  explanatory  manner,  "  and  I  have 
no  doubt  but  that  there  are  many  distinguished  men  in  the  country  with 
whom,  as  yet,  I  have  no  acquaintance."  "  Dang  it,  I  ho',  I  thot  you  must  be 
a  green  'un,  not  to  know  Jo-ah  Ho-ag."  "  I  must  judge  from  your  remarks 
that  you  are  very  familiar  with  Mr.  Hoge  ?"  "  Know  'im !  I  know  'im  !  Ha  ! 
know  Jo-ah  Hoag  !  Should  think  we  did  some  " — and  my  Mormon  friend 
leaned  back  and  indulged  in  a  terrific  roar  of  laughter.  "  You  lived  with 


27 

him— in  the  same  State  ?"  "  In  the  same  State,  mon  ;  in  the  same  district 
we  was."  "  You  were  intimate  with  him  ?"  "  For  mony  a  year  he  was  the 
most  intimate  mon  in  my  family,  'cept  mysel."  "  Ah,  ha !"  "  Why  yes. 
Why  our  family  'lected  him  to  Congress  wuns  ?"  "  Your  family  elected  him 
to  Congress  !  How's  that  ?  Oh,  I  suppose  you  had  a  large  number  of  sons, 
and  Mr  Hoge  was  elected  by  so  small  a  majority  that  had  you  counted 
against  him  at  the  polls  he  would  have  been  defeated  ?"  "  Ne'er  a  boy  has 
the  Lord  blessed  me  with,  tho'  I've  had  risn'  of  a  duzen  dorters  in  my  time." 
"  Your  vote  alone  did  not  turn  the  scale,  did  it  ?"  "  Stranger,  I  say  that  our 
family  'lected  Jo-ah  Ho-ag  to  Congress  wuns,  and  that  nobody  disputed  in 
our  parts.  I  was  powerful  rich  in  those  days  ;  I've  got  powerful  poor  since." 
"  You  dont  mean  to  say  that  you  bought  your  friend  Hoge's  way  into  Con 
gress  ?"  "  Do  you  mean  to  insult  me,  stranger  ?"  "  By  no  means."  "We  be 
honest  folks  in  those  parts  in  them  days."  "  I  don't  doubt  it.  Won't  you  be 
kind  enough  to  tell  me  how  your  family  elected  Joe  Hoge  to  Congress?"  "Why 
in  those  days,  I  had  seven  wives  and  ten  grown  up  dorters ;  and  jusi  the 
night  'afore  'lection,  Jo-ah  Ho-ag  come  down  to  our  parts  and  paid  for  a  reg 
ular  jollification  Love-feast,  which  didn't  break  up  'til  morning;  and  then  we 
went  up,  all  on  us,  women  and  all — and  the  women  and  men  folks  in  ^the 
neighborhood  who  we  stirred  up  to  it — and  voted  Jo-ah  Ho-ag  square  into 
Congress." 

Fellow-citizens,  we  have  a  fair  prospect,  at  least  an  "  even  chance  "  of 
carrying  this  State  this  fall.  At  all  events,  if  we  secure  a  national  triumph 
in  November  next,  California  is  certainly  ours  in  '61.  It  becomes  us,  then, 
to  commence  the  distinct  mapping  of  our  intended  domestic  policy.  I  pro 
pose  to  devote  the  very  brief  space  of  time  remaining  for  my  remarks,  in 
referring  to  such  measures  as  I  think  it  our  eminent  interest  to  advocate  and 
adopt. 

We  must  frame  a  system  of  laws  by  which  the  abominable  Coolie  impor 
tation  shall  be  stopped.  Some  years  ago,  when  a  comparative  stranger  to 
the  condition  of  the  Chinese  population  in  our  mining  regions,  I  held  opin 
ions  somewhat  at  variance  with  those  I  now  proclaim  as  the  product  of  my 
deliberate  judgment.  The  cupidity  of  the  shipping  masters  and  agents  is 
battling  with  our  rights  and  our  principles.  Slavery,  in  one  of  its  vilest 
forms,  is  being  introduced  into  our  land  ;  a  species  of  slavery  ten-fold  more 
impoverishing  than  that  recognized  in  South  Carolina,  is  gaining  a  strong 
foothold  in  California.  We  must  put  a  veto  on  its  continuance  and  spread 
now,  or  it  will  soon  be  too  late  for  such  action.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  it 
is  within  the  scope  of  our  Legislature  to  enact  such  constitutional  laws  as 
will  effectually  end  this  business  of  importing  and  working  Asiatic  slaves. 
The  Douglas  State  Convention  flatly  refused  to  pass  a  resolution  introduced 
by  Mr.  Evans,  of  Tuolumne,  pledging  the  party  to  hostility  to  this  infamous 
trade  in  Mongolian  implements  ;  thus  ruling  their  ranks  into  harmony  with 
the  Chivalry  Democracy  on  this  important  issue.  No  doubt  in  their  local 
conventions  in  the  mountain  counties,  they  will  pass  stringent  resolutions  on 
this  subject ;  but  I  sincerely  regret  to  believe  that  their  action  in  State  Con 
vention  places  them  in  antagonism  to  the  highest  welfare  of  the  white 
laborer.  Let  there  be  no  mistake  about  our  position  as  a  party  in  relation 
to  this  matter. 

A  series  of  wholesome  and  stringent  laws  relative  to  the  conducting  of  our 
"  Injun  wars,"  are  imperatively  demanded.  We  have  now  quartered  upon 
the  State  one  or  two  greasy  officials  who  render  no  consideration  for  their 
large  salaries  save  such  as  may  consist  in  the  originating  and  conducting  of 
"Injun  campaigns,"  fruitless  of  good  to  the  State,  and  only  productive  of 
enormous  bills  of  expense.  And  these  Indian  war  bills  are  lobbied  through 
the  Legislature  every  winter,  dragging  in  their  train  a  score  of  outside  ac 
counts,  less  in  magnitude,  but  similar  in  character — thus  corrupting  the  whole 
process  of  legislation  for  the  season. 

The  State  should  attempt  something  practical  and  direct  towards  the 


28 

commencement  of  the  work  on  the  great  trans-continental  Railroad.  For 
this  one  enterprise  we  can  afford  to  drop  all  disputing  about  the  ancient 
Whig  and  Democratic  doctrines  concerning  internal  improvements  by  Gov 
ernment  direction  or  aid. 

Our  school  system  is  by  no  means  what  it  ought  to  be.  In  our  larger 
towns  and  in  our  cities,  the  common  instruction  is  unquestionably  ample  and 
excellent ;  but  in  our  sparsely  populated  districts,  little  or  no  attention  of  a 
useful  character  is  obtained  from  our  educational  officers.  We  should  insist 
upon  a  law  which  will  call  for  something  more  than  a  few  columns  of  statis 
tics,  and  a  long  trite  essay  on  the  occupation  and  benefits  of  teaching,  from 
our  superintendents.  We  want  a  State  Superintendent  of  Schools,  who  will 
condescend  to  visit  every  village  and  camp  in  the  State,  and  who  has  the 
practical  energy  and  experience  which  will  enable  him  to  plant  there  a  tree 
of  knowledge.  Why,  fellow-citizens,  we  have  towns  in  this  State  where  there 
are  Odd  Fellow  and  Masonic  and  Temperance  Halls  and  Lodges,  and  not  a 
sign  of  a  Common  School. 

And,  if  immediate  steps  are  not  taken  to  care  for  its  direction,  a  consid 
erable  portion  of  the  revenue  to  be  derived  from  the  lands  donated  to  us  by 
Congress  for  educational  purposes,  is  in  danger  of  being  misapplied  and 
squandered.  We  owe  to  our  Douglas  Governor,  Downey,  the  cowardly 
killing  of  the  most  just  and  beneficent  law  in  relation  to  school  lands  which 
has  ever  passed  our  Legislature.  While  he  was  receiving  general  commen 
dation  for  his  veto  of  the  Bulkhead  Bill,  he  held  in  his  pocket  a  bill  provid 
ing  for  an  equal  distribution  throughout  the  State,  according  to  average 
school  attendance,  of  the  funds  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  lands  which  Con 
gress  gave  to  California  for  the  greatest  educational  good  to  the  greatest 
number.  He  thus,  in  his  Gubernatorial  discretion,  perpetrated  a  great  wrong 
in  a  contemptible  manner. 

I  understand  that  we  will  seek  the  adoption  of  the  most  liberal  policy  in 
regard  to  naturalization  laws,  and  touching  subjects  in  which  the  conscien 
tious  scruples  of  any  class  of  citizens  are  involved. 

One  of  the  most  excellent  elements  in  our  Western  population  is  com 
posed  of  our  citizens  of  German  birth  and  extraction.  They  have  their 
peculiar  customs  for  entertainment's  sake,  their  remarkably  fine  habits  of 
gymnastic  exercise  and  display,  which  they  choose  to  conduct  on  the  first 
day  of  the  week.  We  should  set  our  platforms  and  our  votes  against  any 
attempts  to  abridge  their  present  privileges  in  this  particular.  Such,  I  am 
confident,  is  the  general  sentiment  and  purpose  of  the  Republican  organiza 
tion  within  this  State. 

It  is  evident,  that  in  this  connection,  and  with  reference  also  to  the  Coolie 
importation  question,  I  cannot  forbear  mentioning  that  the  Republican  party 
of  Californa  has  been  sadly  misrepresented  in  our  Legislature  since  the  last 
Presidential  election.  It  should  be  known  that  this  has  arisen  from  the  fact 
that  a  coalition  has  been  formed  in  San  Francisco,  and  kept  in  successful 
operation  for  the  past  three  or  four  years,  between  the  Chivs  who,  unable  to 
get  into  the  Custom  House,  itch  for  local  pap,  and  the  officers  who  preside 
in  day-time  over  the  labor  of  the  chain-gang  and  nightly  roost  amid  the 
stench  of  the  station-house.  This  compound  has  been  enabled  thus  far  to 
betray  a  sufficient  number  of  Republicans  into  its  support  to  secure  its  tri 
umph  at  the  polls  ;  but  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  its  day  is  about  over.  Un 
der  its  reign,  primary  election  ballot-boxes  have  been  stuffed  in  a  manner  to 
force  a  blush  from  the  davs  of  Mulligan  and  Casey.  The  "  People's  Party" 
and  the  "  Reform  Party,"  have  been  their  catch  cognomens  ;  and  with  these 
they  have  obtained  aid  from  a  class  of  easily-duped  honest  folks.  Well,  this 
mongrel  political  club  has  secured  the  election  of  such  men  to  the  County 
Conventions  of  our  party  as  they  saw  fit ;  and  those  convention*  have  nomi 
nated  "  Republicans,"  so  called,  who,  having  two  masters,  and  feeling  really 
irresponsible,  or  least  responsible  to  the  Republican  party,  hive  come  up  to 
the  capital  and  voted  for  Sunday  blue  laws,  and  against  anti-Coolie  importa- 


29 

tation  laws  ;  and  even  against  a  resolution  calling  for  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  investigate  into  the  possibility  and  expediency  of  framing  and 
passing  a  clearly  constitutional  enactment  in  destruction  of  this  pernicious 
commerce.  And,  in  addition  to  this,  I  ought  to  say  that  this  Representation 
have  done  all  in  their  power  to  impair  the  efficiency  and  defeat  the  great 
objects  of  the  San  Francisco  Consolidation  bill — which  alone  procured  re 
formatory  results  in  the  metropolis. 

And  this  illustrates  the  necessity  of  clean  Republican  tickets  in  every  dis 
trict  and  municipality.  The  Republican  party  is  a  party  for  government,  in 
every  section  and  division  of  the  country.  It  has  its  claims  to  be  a  true 
People's  and  Reform  party,  and  it  cannot  afford  to  negative  these  for  the 
poor  and  improper  purpose  of  keeping  a  set  of  smart  Chivs  in  local  offices, 
and  sending  a  pack  of  weak  brethren  to  the  law-making  councils  of  the  State. 

Our  State  policy  must  necessarily  have  its  chief  exposition  through  legis 
lative  enactment,  and  we  need  in  the  Senate  and  Assembly  wise,  true  and 
unfettered  representatives.  To  secure  this,  we  appeal  to  the  people  with  a 
clear,  honest  and  liberal  creed.  We  do  not  insult  the  people  by  confining 
our  address  to  the  "  heavy  tax-payers  " — as  is  the  aristocratic  fashion  of  the 
People's  Party  organ  in  San  Francisco.  We  profess  to  be  followers  of 
Jefferson,  who  said  :  "  Any  appeal  or  measure  calculated  to  place  the  capi 
talist  above  the  laborer  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  right  of  suffrage,  is  to  be 
frowned  upon  as  a  direct  and  positive  advance  towards  the  establishment  of 
an  oppressive  political  aristocracy."  And,  again,  one  of  our  beloved  political 
fathers  writes  :  "  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  ascribe  to  the  tax-payers  alone — 
the  men  who  pay  tithes — the  support  of  a  government.  One  patriotic  soul, 
one  well  informed  mind,  one  invincible  will  may  prove,  in  probable  emer 
gencies,  to  be  worth  thousands  of  dollars  in  government  revenue.  In  men 
and  not  in  money,  is  our  hope  for  the  perpetuity  of  a  Republican  form  of 
government,"  Again  :  "  In  a  free  government,  like  our  own,  all  men  have 
an  equal  right  to  participate  in  the  duties  of  citizenship,  and  hence,  all  are 
equally  responsible  for  the  care,  the  prosperous  or  diseased  condition  of 
government."  Again:  "When  government  is  illy  administered,  it  is  the 
poor  and  not  the  rich  who  suffer  the  most  disastrous  consequences."  "  The 
financial  condition  of  any  government  affects  the  wages  of  the  common 
laboring  classes  in  a  very  sensible  degree  ;  and  hence,  it  is  oftentimes  the 
case,  the  poorer  the  citizen  the  greater  the  tax-payer." 

Fellow-citizens,  in  the  contest  in  which  we  are  now  engaged  we  have 
many  encouragements.  The  present  broken  condition  of  the  old  Demo 
cratic  party,  and  the  disgus'ing  pretensions  of  an  ephemeral  organization 
without  platform  or  principles,  largely  contribute  to  open  for  us  a  sure  path 
of  triumph.  In  making  allowances  for  the  infirmities  of  human  nature,  we 
have  had  to  consider  the  education  and  fixed  habits  of  men  who  have  neither 
the  time,  the  energy  nor  the  disposition  to  devote  themselves  to  such  a  study 
of  political  affairs  as  would  induce  them  to  forego  party  names  for  the  sake 
of  practically  enunciating  true  political  doctrines.  The  old  party  ruts  have 
been  destroyed,  the  old  party  hacks  have  been  deserted,  and  popular  politi 
cal  reflections,  thoroughly  loosened  from  the  thraldom  of  mere  party  preju 
dice,  are  stimulated  to  the  most  careful  and  catholic  exercise. 

We  have  obtained  a  discipline  in  defeat  well  adapted  not  only  to  unite  us 
in  the  ranks,  but  to  render  more  liberal  and  national  and  deep-founded  the 
basis  of  our  organization. 

It  was  a  part  of  the  tactics  of  a  celebrated  European  General,  never  to 
send  a  Colonel  or  a  company  who  had  met  with  frequent  defeat  into  a  criti 
cal  portion  of  a  battle  field.  We  find  that  under  a  similar  discretion  our 
campaign  duties  have  been  distributed.  We  find  that  the  most  active  men 
in  our  National  Executive  Committee  are  old  line  democrats ;  and  at  their 
head  stands  that  indefatigable  democratic  General,  Preston  King,  of  New 
York.  And  throughout  the  country  we  find  prominent  and  earnest  in  our 
cause,  heading  our  legions,  the  bravest  and  choicest  spirits  of  the  ancient 


30 

Democratic  camp — men  inured  to  toils  and  hardships,  and  accustomed  to 
victory. 

There  is  Hannibal  Hamlin,  of  Maine  ;  George  S.  Boutwell,  of  Massachu 
setts  ;  Lyman  Trumbull,  and  N.  P.  Banks,  of  Illinois ;  John  Hickman,  and 
Simon  Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania ;  Senator  Doolittle,  of  Wisconsin,  " old 
man  Blair"  of  Missouri — the  man  famous  for  having  manufactured  Gen'l 
Jackson's  thunder,  and  seasoned  it  with  lightning ;  Frank  Blair,  of  the  same 
State — all  these  old  line  Democrats  stand  in  the  van  of  our  army.  And,  here 
in  California  we  have  upon  our  electoral  ticket,  that  old  Suwarrow  of  the 
democracy,  William  H.  Weeks.  In  San  Francisco,  we  have  such  ancient 
Democrats  as  Fletcher  M.  Haight,  and  W.  J.  Shaw;  and  Thos.  Gray  of  whom 
Thomas  H.  Benton  said,  a  shoVt  time  before  his  death,  "  1  never  would  have 
been  beaten  in  Missouri  if  Captain  Gray  had  remained  in  St.  Louis."  These 
men  have  often  triumphed,  and  they  know  the  path  and  are  animated  by  the 
true  spirit  of  political  SUCCESS. 

And  among  the  prominent  signs  of  the  times  let  us  not  forget  to  mention 
the  ready  formation  and  efficient  action  of  such  organizations  as  are  repre 
sented  here  to-night.  How  significant  is  the  announcement  that  with  a  sin 
gle  evening's  notice  you  have  gathered  in  a  Wide  Awake  Club  in  this  cap 
ital  city,  nearly  one  hundred  gallant  soldiers — thus  heartily  enlisted  for  the 
fight.  In  San  Francisco  we  have  between  two  and  three  hundred  Wide 
Awakes,  and  large  accessions  are  daily  made  to  our  ranks  by  their  popular 
influence. 

Fellow  citizens,  whom  have  we  for  a  candidate  for  President  of  these 
United  States  ?  Let  us  not  indulge  in  eulogies  ;  let  us  speak  with  simplicity ; 
let  us  call  for  the  words  of  censure  and  disparagement,  if  there  be  any,  which 
are  presented  against  Abraham  Lincoln.  His  occupations  in  early  life  are 
sought  to  be  made  the  subject  of  ridicule  among  his  opponents.  Did  you 
ever  hear  a  Republican  sneer  at  the  mechanical  laboring  class  of  which 
Douglas  in  his  youth  was  a  member  ?  What  must  be  the  meanness  of  tem 
per  and  the  extremity  of  position  of  that  political  party  which  finds  itself 
compelled  and  willing  to  ridicule  the  honest  laborer,  of  any  name.  The  per 
sonal  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  never  called  in  question.  His  upright 
ness  and  firmness  is  never  disputed. 

Sometimes  Lincoln's  ability  has  been  questioned,  but  those  who  permit 
themselves  to  attempt  thus  to  detract  from  his  high  repute  dare  not  test  the 
matter  by  a  candid  examination  of  the  discussion  between  him  and  Douglas  in 
the  memorable  Illinois  Senatorial  canvass  of  1858.  In  fact,  we  have  no  per 
sonal  labor  in  the  support  of  our  candidate.  It  is  generally  acknowledged 
that  he  is  a  qualified  man  for  the  Presidency.  Even  the  leading  men  in  the 
old  gentleman's  party,  captious  and  censorious  as  they  are  determined  to  be, 
concede  him  talent,  great  energy,  unimpeachable  honesty  and  inflexibility  of 
purpose.  More  than  and  above  all  this,  the  working  men  of  the  country,  the 
bone  and  sinew  of  the  land,  are  beginning  to  discover  the  virtue  of  this  man  ; 
who  without  adventitious  aids,  without  the  employment  of  any  of  the  arts  of  the 
demagogue,  sufficiently  mingling  in  the  political  a'rena  to  constantly  apprehend 
the  great  political  issues  and  yet  sufficiently  reserved  in  private  life  to  keep 
his  mind  untrammeled  from  party  prejudice  and  his  heart  pure  from  party 
stains,  has  risen  from  the  place  of  the  humblest  laborer  to  the  proud  position 
which  he  has  been  called  upon  to  assume.  And,  to-day,  every  flat-boatman 
who  guides  his  rude  craft  down  the  Mississippi,  every  blacksmith  who  swings 
the  sledge  over  the  sounding  anvil,  every  farmer  who,  in  this  harvest 
time,  plies  the  sickle  or  throws  the  flail  in  the  fertile  valley  of  the  Sange- 
mon,  every  pioneer  settler  in  the  mighty  forests  of  the  West,  whose  axe- 
blade  gleams  amid  the  thicket,  or  descending  upon  some  huge  bodied  hick 
ory,  begets  the  echoing  notes  of  an  advancing  civilization,  repeat  in  their 
bronzing  toil  the  grand  chapters  in  the  disciplining  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  - 
And  ignorant  of,  or  treacherous  to  their  highest  interests  will  they  be,  if  they 


31 

refuse  their  cheerful  and  effective  support,  in  November  next,  at  the  Free 
man's  ballot-box,  to  such  a  man  as  "  Honest  old  Abe." 

Of  this  we  are  certain :  if  Abraham  Lincoln  is  elected  President  he 
will  do  justice  to  the  requirements  of  that  great  station ;  and  that  is  all  that 
ought  to  be  asked  of  mortal  man.  He  will  have  the  various  departments  of 
government  conducted  in  proper  order  and  each  within  constitutional  limits. 
He  will  attend  to  his  own  immediate  duties  with  conscientious  faithfulness. 

We  hope  for  his  election.  For  that  result  we  labor.  If  he  shall  be  elected 
we  will  sustain  him  heartily  in  his  honest  efforts  for  reform  and  a  righteous 
rule.  And  among  those  who  are  to  hail  his  success  with  hands,  heads  and 
hearts  well  exercised  in  the  work  required  for  his  elevation,  let  there  be 
none  more  justly  proud  and  enthusiastic  than  the  Republicans  of  the  city  and 
county  of  Sacramento. 


YOUNG     MEN'S 


JUmonatir   |UpUnau   Club 


OF  THE 

CITY  JljVD  COUNTY  OF  £0JV 


Applications  from  the  interior  for  Republic, 
appointments,  may  be  made  to  the  President  or  Con 


OFFICERS 

President. 
THOMAS    GRAY 

Vice-Presidents. 

G.  W.  Manchester,  J.  P.  H.  Wentwort 

Wm.  A.  Grover,  H.  J.  Wells, 

William  M.  Cutter,  Recording 
Charles  A.  Sumner,  Correspon 
J.  Clement,  Treasurer. 


